The influence of atmospheric stability on pollutant transport by slope winds

King, Jeremy; Shair, F. H.; Reible, Danny D.

doi:10.1016/0004-6981(87)90270-8

Cited by 21 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Raga et al [1999] described the occurrence of high nearground ozone concentrations at night in the Mexico City basin, Mexico, due to the return of ozone-rich air, carried by downslope flows, following the advection of pollution above the basin by daytime upslope winds. A similar effect was observed by King et al [1987] who released tracers over the slopes of the Los Angeles basin, California, USA. Lee et al [2003] reported similar events in the Phoenix valley, Arizona, USA, when the lower layers of the valley atmosphere were weakly stratified.…”

Section: V1 Introductionsupporting

confidence: 50%

Interactions Between Downslope Flows and a Developing Cold-Air Pool

Burns

Chemel

2014

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family.i Abstract Downslope flows and regions of enhanced cooling have important impacts on society and the environment. Parameterisation of these often subgrid-scale phenomena in numerical models requires a sound understanding of the underlying physical processes, which has been the overarching aim of this work. A numerical model has been used to characterise the development of a region of enhanced cooling in an idealised alpine valley with width and depth of order 10 and 1 km, respectively, under stable, decoupled, poorly-drained conditions. A focus of this work has been to remove the uncertainty surrounding the forcing mechanisms behind the development of regions of enhanced cooling. The average valley-atmosphere cooling has been found to be almost equally partitioned between radiative and dynamics effects. Complex interactions between the downslope flows and the region of enhanced cooling have been quantified for the first time. For example, relatively large variations in the downslope flows are generally restricted to the region of enhanced cooling and cannot solely be attributed to the analytical model of [McNider, 1982a]. These flow variations generally coincide with return flows above the downslope flows, where a thin region of unstable air occurs, as well as coinciding with elongated downslope flow structures. The impact of these interactions on the dispersion of passive pollutants has been investigated. For example, pollutants are generally trapped within the region of enhanced cooling. The concentration of pollutants within the region of enhanced cooling, emitted over the lower half of the slopes, increase as the emission source moves away from the ground-based inversion that expands from the bottom of the valley. The concentration of pollutants within the region of enhanced cooling is very similar when varying the location of the emission source over the top half of the valley slopes. This work includes a test of the effects of varying the horizontal numerical grid resolution on average valley-atmosphere temperature changes.iii

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Section: V1 Introductionsupporting

confidence: 50%

Interactions Between Downslope Flows and a Developing Cold-Air Pool

Burns

Chemel

2014

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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“…Within an airshed, such as California's South Coast Air Basin (i.e., Los Angeles), coastal breezes and mountain winds, which are generated by strong daytime heating of land surfaces, can transport and distribute pollutants across the basin (Lu and Turco 1996). Up-slope flows are thought to be an important mechanism whereby pollutants can be transported from source areas into forests and wilderness areas located in mountainous terrain, such as the transport of pollutants from the San Joaquin Valley to the Sierra Nevada Mountains (King, Shair, and Reible 1987). On a regional scale, ozone and its precursors generated near urban areas can slowly accumulate within high-pressure cells and be transported long distances (Vukovich et al 1977;Comrie 1990).…”

Section: Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air Quality, Climate, and Policy: A Case Study of Ozone Pollution in Tucson, Arizona

Diem

Comrie

2001

The Professional Geographer

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This article addresses the need to better understand the complex interactions between climate, human activities, vegetation responses, and surface ozone so that more informed air‐quality policy recommendations can be made. The impacts of intraseasonal climate variations on ozone levels in Tucson, Arizona from April through September of 1995 to 1998 are determined by relating variations in ozone levels to variations in atmospheric conditions and emissions of ozone's precursor chemicals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), and by determining month‐specific atmospheric conditions that are conducive to elevated ozone levels. Results show that the transport of ozone and its precursor chemicals within the Tucson area causes the highest ozone levels to be measured at a downwind monitor. The highest ozone levels occur in August, due in part to the presence of the North American monsoon. Atmospheric conditions conducive to elevated ozone concentrations differ substantially between the arid foresummer (May and June) and the core monsoon months ( July and August). Transport of pollution from Phoenix may have a substantial impact on elevated ozone concentrations during April, May, and June, while El Paso/Ciudad Juarez –derived pollution may contribute significantly to elevated ozone concentrations in August and September. Two broad policy implications derive from this work. Regional pollutant transport, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and Mexico, is a potential issue that needs to be examined more intensively in future studies. In addition, spatiotemporal variations in sensitivities of ozone production require the adoption of both NOx and VOC control measures to reduce ozone levels in the Tucson area.

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“…One way of achieving this is by using an inert tracer, as all changes in tracer concentration are due to transport and diffusion exclusively. A large number of experiments with tracers were conducted in the past, but mainly to study the complex wind field structure in valleys and the associated airborne pollutant transport in valleys [Wilson et al, 1983;Gudiksen et al, 1984;King et al, 1987;Orgill, 1989;Whiteman, 1989;Allwine, 1993]. The problem referred to above, that is, pollutant transport from urban regions into mountainous regions during the day, and the supply of low-pollutant air from mountainous regions into urban regions during the night, which is associated with diurnal cyclic wind systems, has been known for a long time to exist in the Freiburg region [LoJ3nitzer, 1942;Rudloff, 1980; Gro]3, 1989].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%