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U.S. Department of Energy
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Modeling non-precipitating cumulus clouds as flow-through-reactor transformer and venting transporter of mixed-layer pollutants

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6504028
A simple diagnostic model of cumulus convective clouds is developed and used in a sensitivity study to examine the extent to which the rate of change of mixed and cloud layer pollutant concentration is influenced by vertical transport and chemical transformation processes occurring as a result of cumulus clouds. The aqueous-phase-chemical transformation process is parameterized and modeled as a flow-through batch reactor. The net vertical exchange between the mixed and cloud layers by cumulus-cloud elements that protrude above the dry convective mixed layer is modeled as the product of a venting velocity and the difference in pollutant concentration between the mixed and cloud layer. The two-layer model yields an analytic expression involving key parameters such as areal extent of cloud cover, dry deposition rates, thickness in mixed and cloud layers, and the initial concentration difference between the mixed and cloud layers. The model solution was programmed using LOTUS 123.
Research Organization:
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (USA). Atmospheric Sciences Research Lab.
OSTI ID:
6504028
Report Number(s):
PB-87-167102/XAB; EPA-600/D-87/074
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English