Radar and satellite studies of the impact of mesoscale convective precipitation and wind systems on visibility, sulfates, and oxidants during persistent elevated pollution episodes

Conference · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1983 · Proc., Annu. Meet., Air Pollut. Control Assoc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6867751

Lyons, W A; Calby, R H

The results are consistent and supportive, but certainly not conclusive, of a hypothesis suggesting that PBL sulfate mass removal into the free troposphere are on the order of several times that deposited on the surface during convective rainfalls. Thus, given the highly episodic nature of wet deposition and the potential major contribution of a single event to a season's total, a need exists to better understand the contributions of the various MCPS types to visibility improvement and sulfate removal, both to the surface and especially into the free atmosphere. Few projects are cited in the literature in which the precipitation chemistry data were even crudely stratified into major storm types though Raynor and Hayes did find significantly higher surface deposition during frontal thunderstorms and squall lines. Hales and Dana suggest the importance of designing an experiment to achieve an accurate closure of species mass balance within the entire domain of a convective storm. In noting the extreme variability in species washout over a region, they speculate that the bulk of the variability within and between storms must occur by superposition of the effects of inhomogeneous storm features, as well as source characteristics. Grant stated that a definitive characterization of individual storm dynamics and trajectories must be performed before long-term trends can be established with certainty. From the viewpoint of a severe storms meteorologist, much of the effort ongoing to understand regional wet deposition, sulfate, ozone, and visibility patterns, is subject to large errors of interpretation unless an attempt is made to better understand the highly different ways in which various precipitation systems, convective and stratiform, impact the PBL.

• Research Organization: Mesomet, Inc. Chicago, Illinois
• OSTI ID: 6867751
• Report Number(s): CONF-830617-
• Journal Information: Proc., Annu. Meet., Air Pollut. Control Assoc.; (United States), Vol. 83-25.1; Conference: 76. annual meeting of the Air Pollution Control Association, Atlanta, GA, USA, 19 Jun 1983
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
WIND
AIR POLLUTION
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CONVECTION
DATA COVARIANCES
METEOROLOGY
OZONE
RADAR
RESPONSE MODIFYING FACTORS
SATELLITES
STORMS
SULFATES
TROPOSPHERE
VISIBILITY
CHEMISTRY
DISASTERS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
RANGE FINDERS
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
500200* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)