Representation of atmospheric motion in models of regional-scale air pollution

Technical Report · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:7192818

Lamb, R G; Hati, S K

A method is developed for generating ensembles of wind fields for use in regional-scale (1000-km) models of transport and diffusion. The underlying objective is a methodology for representing atmospheric motion in applied air-pollution models that permits explicit treatment of the uncertainty inherent in the specification of atmospheric states. The nature of this uncertainty is illustrated by showing that a set of discrete meteorological observations made at a given moment in time and the diagnostic equations of fluid motion together define a manifold in function space each point of which is a possible description of the state of the atmosphere at the moment the observations were made. It is argued that hypotheses can be adduced regarding the liklihood that individual points on the manifold describe the atmospheric state at the time of the observations; but that, contrary to common practice, adequate information does not exist to allow one to state with certainty that a specific function is the correct description. The paper shows that dynamic programming is ideally suited to finding these sequences which constitute the desired ensemble of wind specifications in space and time.

• Research Organization: Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (USA). Atmospheric Sciences Research Lab.
• OSTI ID: 7192818
• Report Number(s): PB-88-202148/XAB; EPA-600/J-87/326
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
DIFFUSION
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING
FLOW MODELS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
POLLUTION
PROGRAMMING
REGIONAL ANALYSIS