METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS

AND
PLUME-BEHAVIOUR

By
Dr.Pallavi Das
Assistant Professor
Deptt. of Environmental Science
IGNTU

Course Title: Environmental

Pollution and Control
Technique-I
M.SC 2nd Semester
 METEOROLOGICAL FACTORS

Air movements influence the fate of air pollutants.

So any study of air pollution should include a
study of the local weather patterns (meteorology).
If the air is calm and pollutants cannot disperse,
then the concentration of these pollutants will
build up. On the other hand, when strong,
turbulent winds blow, pollutants disperse quickly,
resulting in lower pollutant concentrations
Meteorological data helps:
 identify the source of pollutants
 predict air pollution events such as inversions and high-
pollutant concentration days
 Simulate and predict air quality using computer models
 When high pollutant
concentrations occur at a
monitoring station, wind data
records can determine the
general direction and area of the
emissions.

 Wind carries air contaminants

away from their source, causing
them to disperse. The higher the
wind speed, the more
contaminants are dispersed and
the lower their concentration.

 The stronger the wind, the more

turbulent the air, and the better
the mixing of the contaminants
 TEMPERATURE

 Measuring temperature supports air quality assessment,

air quality modelling and forecasting activities.

 Temperature and sunlight (solar radiation) play an

important role in the chemical reactions that occur in the
atmosphere to form photochemical smog from other
pollutants.

 Favorable conditions can lead to increased concentrations

of smog.

 Warm air sits near the ground and the air can rise easily
and carry away pollutants. In a temperature inversion,
cold air is trapped near the ground by a layer of warm air.
During a temperature inversion, smoke can't rise and
carbon monoxide can reach unhealthy
 TEMPEARTURE INVERSION

 Temperature inversion, a
reversal of the normal
behaviour of temperature in
the troposphere , in which a
layer of cool air at the surface
is overlain by a layer of
warmer air.

 They occur most often when

a warm, less dense air mass
moves over a dense, cold air
mass. This can happen for
example when the air near the
ground rapidly loses its heat
on a clear night. In this
situation, the ground becomes
cooled quickly while the air
above it retains the heat the
ground was holding during the
 HUMIDITY

 Like temperature and solar radiation, water vapour

plays an important role in many thermal and
photochemical reactions in the atmosphere.

 As water molecules are small and highly polar, they can

bind strongly to many substances. If attached to
particles suspended in the air they can significantly
increase the amount of light scattered by the particles
(measuring visibility). If the water molecules attach to
corrosive gases, such as sulfur dioxide, the gas will
dissolve in the water and form an acid solution that can
damage health and property.

 Water vapour content of air is reported as a percentage

of the saturation vapour pressure of water at a given
temperature. This is the relative humidity.

 The amount of water vapour in the atmosphere is

highly variable—it depends on geographic location,
 RAINFALL

 Rain has a 'scavenging' effect when it washes

particulate matter out of the atmosphere and
dissolves gaseous pollutants.

 Removing particles improves visibility. Where

there is frequent high rainfall, air quality is
generally better.

 If the rain dissolves gaseous pollutants, such as

sulfur dioxide, it can form acid rain resulting in
potential damage to materials or vegetation.
 DISPERSION

• General mean air motion

• Turbulent velocity fluctuations
• Diffusion due to concentration gradients – from
plumes
• Aerodynamic characteristics of pollution
• Particles
• Size
• Shape
• Weight
 TURBULENCE

• Two types:
• Atmospheric heating
• Causes natural convection currents ---
discussed
• Thermal eddies
• Mechanical turbulence
• Results from shear wind effects
• Result from air movement over the earth’s
surface, influenced by location of buildings
and relative roughness of terrain.
 LAPSE RATE

• Important characteristic of atmosphere is ability to resist

vertical motion: stability
• Affects ability to disperse pollutants
• When small volume of air is displaced upward
• Encounters lower pressure
• Expands to lower temperature
• Assume no heat transfers to surrounding atmosphere
• Called adiabatic expansion
 ATMOSPHERIC
STABILITY
 Atmospheric stability determines whether or not air
will rise and cause storms, sink and cause clear skies, or
essentially do nothing.

 Stability is dependent upon the Dry and Saturated

Adiabatic Lapse Rates and the Environmental Lapse Rate.
CONDITIO
NS
A) If an air parcel is warmer than its surrounding
environment, then it will be less dense than its
surroundings and will rise like a hot air balloon. This is
Unstable Air and has the potential for creating storms.

B) If an air parcel is cooler than its surrounding

environment, then it will be denser than its environment
and will sink. This is Stable Air which generally leads to
clear skies.

C) If an air parcel is the same temperature as its

 Environmental Lapse Rate: The rate at which the air
temperature changes with height in the atmosphere
surrounding a cloud or a rising parcel of air. The overall
average rate is a decrease of about 6.5°C/km.

 Where the lapse rate of temperature is negative

(temperature increases with height), an inversion is
said to exist.

 The word adiabatic means that no outside heat is

involved in the warming or cooling of the air parcels.

 Dry air cools at about 10 C/km (the 'dry adiabatic lapse

rate'), while moist air usually cools at less than 6 C/km
('moist adiabatic lapse rate’).

 The lapse rate that occurs in a vertically moving air

parcel in which no condensation is occurring. The
temperature change is related to the expansional
cooling` q(compressional warming) that occurs
when the air moves upward (downward).
Vertical Temperature
Profiles
Environmental lapse
rate (ELR)
Dry adiabatic lapse
rate (DALR)
If,
ELR > DALR =sub
adiabatic condition,
atmosphere is stable.
ELR >> DALR=
Inversion conditions.
Very stable atmosphere.
ELR= DALR=
atmosphere is neutral.
ELR< DALR = super
adiabatic condition,
atmosphere is unstable.

Shapes of plumes
General Characteristics of
Stack Plumes

• Dispersion of pollutants
• Wind – carries pollution downstream from
source
• Atmospheric turbulence -- causes
pollutants to
fluctuate from mainstream in vertical and
crosswind directions
• Mechanical & atmospheric heating both
present at same time but in varying ratios
• Affect plume dispersion differently
 Plume Types

• Plume types are important because they

help us understand under what conditions
there will be higher concentrations of
contaminants at ground level.
 2. Neutral Plume 3. Coning Plume (Wind velocity > 32km/h)
1. Looping Plume

1 1 1

DALR DALR
Z Z DALR
Z

0 0
0
T T
T

4. Fanning Plume 6. Fumigating Plume

5. Lofting Plume
1 1
1

Z Z
Z

0 0
0
T T
T

Types of plume with respect to atmospheric stability

 Looping Plume
• High degree of convective
turbulence
• Super-adiabatic lapse rate
-- strong instabilities
• Associated with clear
daytime conditions
accompanied by strong
solar heating & light winds
• High probability of high
concentrations
sporadically at ground
level close to stack.
• Occurs in unstable
atmospheric conditions.
 DAL
R
EL
R

Looping Plume
When the environmental lapse rate is less than the adiabatic
lapse rate (cools at less than 9.8oC/1000 m), the air is stable and
resists vertical motion. This is a sub-adiabatic lapse rate. Air that
is lifted vertically will remain cooler, and therefore more dense
than the surrounding air. Once the lifting force is removed, the
air that has been lifted will return to its original position.Stable
conditions occur at night when there is little or no wind.
 Coning Plume

• Stable with small-scale

turbulence
• Associated with overcast
moderate to strong winds
• Roughly 10° cone
• Pollutants travel fairly long
distances before reaching
ground level in significant
amounts
• Occurs in neutral
atmospheric conditions
When the environmental lapse rate is the same as the dry
adiabatic lapse rate, the atmosphere is in a state of neutral
stability . Vertical air movement is neither encouraged nor
hindered. The neutral condition is important as the dividing line
between stable and unstable conditions. Neutral stability occurs
on windy days or when there is cloud cover such that strong
heating or cooling of the earth's surface is not occurring.
 Fanning Plume
• Occurs under large negative
lapse rate
• Strong inversion at a
considerable distance
above the stack
• Extremely stable
atmosphere
• Little turbulence
• If plume density is similar to
air, travels downwind at
approximately same
elevation
 Lofting Plume

• Favorable in the sense

that fewer impacts at
ground level.
• Pollutants go up into
environment.
• They are created when
atmospheric conditions
are unstable above the
plume and stable below.
 Fumigation
• Most dangerous plume:
contaminants are all coming
down to ground level.
• They are created when
atmospheric conditions are
stable above the plume and
unstable below.
• This happens most often after
the daylight sun has warmed
the atmosphere, which turns a
night time fanning plume into
fumigation for about a half an
hour.
THANKS