Assessment of boundary layer profiling formulas using tower, sodar and balloon data

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:28713

Paine, R J ^[1]; Kendall, S B ^[2]

---

1. ENSR Consulting and Engineering, Inc., Acton, MA (United States)
2. Phelps Dodge Corp., Phoenix, AZ (United States)

The accuracy of an air quality dispersion model is largely dependent upon the availability of representative meteorological data for the simulation of plume rise, transport, and dispersion. In many cases where tall stacks and/or buoyant plumes are involved, the available meteorological measurements do not extend to plume height. Air quality models contend with these situations by either assuming no change of meteorological variables with elevation or by applying a profiling relationship based upon theoretical or empirical relationships. The latter treatment is employed in recently-developed models such as CTDMPLUS, and HPDM, and OML. In the well-mixed convective boundary layer, meteorological variables such as wind direction, wind speed, and turbulence do not vary substantially above the surface layer (about 0.1 z{sub i}, the mixed-layer height). Above the surface layer, behavior on an hourly average basis is fairly well parameterized by boundary-layer formulations. However, models are sensitive to the height of the convective boundary layer, z{sub i}, which affects the magnitude of the convective velocity scale, w., and is important for simulating plume trapping and plume penetration into the stable layer aloft. In the stable boundary layer, plumes are often released at heights above the stable boundary layer, the height of which is often hard to define. Models are sensitive to the manner in which wind direction, wind speed, temperature and turbulence are profiled with height in stable conditions.

• OSTI ID: 28713
• Report Number(s): CONF-940115--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACCURACY
AIR POLLUTION
AIR QUALITY
BOUNDARY LAYERS
CLIMATE MODELS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METEOROLOGY
PLUMES
STACKS
WIND