Search

Particulate matter (PM) air pollution is a serious public health issue for the United States. While there is a growing body of evidence that climate change will partially counter the effectiveness of future precursor emission reductions to reduce ozone (O3) air pollution, the links between PM and climate change are more complex and less understood. This paper discusses what we currently understand about the potential sensitivity of PM episodes to climate-change-related shifts in air pollution meteorology, in the broader context of the emissions and atmospheric chemistry drivers of PM. For example, initial studies have focused largely on annual average concentrations of inorganic aerosol species. However, the potential for future changes in the occurrence of PM episodes, and their underlying meteorological drivers, are likely more important to understand and remain highly uncertain. In addition, a number of other poorly understood factors interact with these likely critical meteorological changes. These in...

The tenth in a continuing series of joint conferences between the American Meteorological Society and the Air and Waste Management Association on meteorological aspects of air pollution was held 11–16 January 1998 in Phoenix, Arizona. Diverse topics in air dispersion modeling, boundary layer meteorology, cloud physics, atmospheric chemistry, fluid mechanics, and engineering were presented at the conference. A summary of the presentations made at the conference is provided.

SODAR-RASS systems are progressively used for a large number of applications especially in air pollution meteorology. Both quantitative and qualitative information on the atmospheric structure parameters can be obtained with reasonable accuracy. Among others, the mixing height of the atmosphere, the wind and temperature field and the stability class can be determined. This paper studies correlations between certain profilometer-produced estimates of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) characteristics and urban air pollution patterns incorporating collected environmental data in Athens, Greece. The recorded air pollution episodes, considering both primary emitted and photochemically produced pollutants, were analyzed along side the ABL characteristics determined by a SODAR-RASS profilometer operating close to the center of the city. First results indicated that sufficiently good correlation exists between relevant profilometer ABL estimates, (e.g. Zi) and the patterns of air pollution encountered over the city.

An overview of the key scientific results presented at the 10th Joint Conference on Applications of Air Pollution Meteorology.

Most air pollution phenomena occur in the lower part of the atmosphere called the planetary boundary layer, or PBL. The PBL (which is sometimes called the friction layer) is defined as “the region in which the atmosphere experiences surface effects through vertical exchanges of momentum, heat and moisture” (Panofsky and Dutton, 1984).

The application of ground-based remote-sensing systems for monitoring those meteorological parameters of importance in urban air pollution is discussed. Typical system considerations include an analysis of site characteristics and sensor location. Examples of how remote-sensing systems might be applied to air pollution meteorology are given.

The air pollution meteorology program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), administered by personnel from EPA and by personnel on assignment to EPA from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is described. The program consists of two general areas of activity: research activities aimed at defining and describing meteorological factors of prime importance to air pollution control and abatement; operational support activities which apply meteorological principles to air pollution control programs. Current research activities on air quality simulation modeling, the Regional Air Pollution Study in the St. Louis area, geophysical studies, and air pollution potential climatology are reviewed.

First, the atmospheric transport equations for citywide particulate air pollution are stated and methods for the numerical evaluation of each term are discussed. Next, the role of the several transport mechanisms in producing the observed daily air pollution cycle in Denver and analyzed. Finally, problems of concentration of pollution within Denver and the onset and termination of pollution episodes are described.

An air pollution ecosystem is shown schematically in Figure 1. The size of the ecosystem may be as small as a village or as large as the world. In all cases, the atmosphere is an integral component, transporting substances from sources to receptors and, on most occasions, diluting the pollution to acceptable levels. Dispersion rates are so Open image in new window variable from place to place and from time to time, however, that the meteorological part of the ecosystem requires special study. Sometimes the natural ventilation provided by the atmosphere is very limited, and air quality deteriorates greatly. On other occasions the pollution mixes thoroughly through a very large volume of air.

The paper gives a brief introduction to air pollution meteorology with particular emphasis on the description of short-range dispersion from single sources. Industrial sites are normally not chosen on the basis of air pollution criteria. However, air pollution problems may be avoided to some extent, if meteorological, climatological, topographic, and aerodynamic factors are taken into account in the design and location of industrial stacks.

This paper describes an agent framework to support spatial data mining of air pollution data. A Web-based solution, APMF (Air Pollution Mining Framework), is developed to investigate the effect of meteorological and air pollutant elements on air pollution. It makes use of three types of agents: collect agents, coordinate agents and query/mining agents. Query/mining agents interact with the user, receive user queries and mining requests, and deliver the results. Coordinate agents help to prepare the data resources for the querying tasks. Collect agents provide access to a heterogeneous collection of Web sources. In order to standardize data exchanges and query/mining process descriptions, an XML-based language, DQML, is developed. A prototype of the APMF is implemented with a Java servlet and JavaLite.