UNIT 2.

ATMOSPHERIC METEOROLOGY

Air Pollution and Control

7th Sem
Dr. Raghava Aditya
Introduction
 The Earth's atmosphere is the gaseous envelope that surrounds our
planet. There is no exact upper limit for the extent of the
atmosphere.
 Our atmosphere is composed of different gases, the two most
abundant of which are N2 and O2
 Nitrogen accounts for 79% of the atmosphere and
Oxygen for 20%
 The rest is made of gases like CO2, water vapor
etc.
Layers of the atmosphere

Exosphere

Thermosphere

Mesophere

Stratosphere

Troposphere
 Troposphere: The lowest of these, the troposphere is where we live,
and where essentially all of our weather occurs. It extends upto a
height of 10 km.

 Stratosphere: The Stratosphere lies above the troposphere and

extends up to a height of 50 km. This layer is free of clouds and
devoid of any weather-related phenomenon. Aeroplanes fly in the
Stratosphere. The Stratosphere also houses the ozone layer that
protects us from the harmful effect of the sun’s rays.
 Mesophere: This layer extends from upto 50 km to up to 80 km.
The density of air is very thin at this region.
 The mesosphere is difficult to study, so less is known about this layer
of the atmosphere than other layers.

 Thermosphere: The thermosphere is the region of the atmosphere

where the most energetic solar energy is absorbed. It extends from
a height of about 80 km to about 600 km.
 Air is even thinner here than in the mesosphere, still, there are
sufficient numbers of O and N atoms to absorb solar X-rays and
gamma rays.
 Exosphere:
 It is the outermost layer of the earth’s atmopshere, which begins at
around 600 km. There is no clear boundary for the upper limit of
the exosphere and space.
Temperature profile of earth
Temperature profile of atmosphere
 Temperature decreases with height from the earth’s surface in
the troposphere at the rate of approximately 6.5 C/km,
although this rate can vary from day to day and place to
place.

 The stratosphere has a higher concentration of ozone than the

troposphere. When stratospheric ozone absorbs this energy,
the stratosphere warms, and of course, the ultraviolet energy
does not reach the surface of the Earth since it has been
absorbed in the stratosphere.
 The temperature in the mesosphere grows colder with the altitude.
This is because there are few gas molecules in the mesosphere to
absorb the Sun’s radiation. The only heat source is the stratosphere
below. The mesosphere is extremely cold, especially at the top,
dropping to a temperature as low as -90°C.

 The thermosphere layer absorbs most of the harmful solar X-rays

and gamma rays from the sun. As a result, this layer is again hotter
than the mesophere.
Pressure profile of atmosphere
 Atmospheric pressure is the pressure exerted by the
atmosphere on earth. It is the weight of the air above a
particular location.
 On the surface of earth, atmospheric pressure is typically
101.32 kPa, or 1013.2 millibar (mb)
 Pressure is highest at the ground level (sea level) and
decreases with height.
Humidity
 Humidity is a measure of amount of water vapor in the air.
 It is commonly measured the factor ‘ Relative Humidity’ (RH).
 RH = [current humidity in the air / Maximum humidity the air
can hold ] x 100
 In the atmosphere, when RH reaches 100%, then water vapour
condenses and cloud formation takes place.
 When this happens closer to the earth's surface, fog is formed.
What causes wind ?
 Wind is the movement of air on the planet’s surface.
 Wind occurs mainly due to the following reasons:
 Different temperatures on different parts of earth. For example, Land
heats faster than the sea. Warm air is lighter, cold air is heavier.
 Pressure difference between two locations
 Rotation of the earth, causing the atmosphere to move along with it
and causing different parts of the earth to get heated differently
What causes wind ?
 Wind speed less than 10 km/h is categorized as ‘light breeze’
 Wind speed greater than 80 km/h is categorized as ‘storm’
Dispersion of pollutants

 Warm air from the surface of the earth rises up and eventually cools
down, due to decrease in pressure.
 The rate of change in temperature as we move up the atmposhere is
called ‘lapse rate’.
 The rate at which dry air cools as it rises, without any loss of energy
is called the dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR)
 From physics, it was found that dry adiabatic lapse rate
is approx. -9.8 degree C/km
Dispersion of pollutants
 The actual measured rate at which air cools as it rises is called the
ambient or prevailing lapse rate.

Height Lapse rate

Temperature
Dispersion of pollutants
 When the ambient lapse rate is exactly the same as the dry adiabatic
lapse rate, the atmosphere is considered neutral.
 Super adiabatic conditions prevail when the air temperature drops more
than 9.8C/Km (Atmosphere is unstable : Air will move up and down )
 Sub adiabatic conditions prevail when the air temperature drops at a rate
less than 9.8C/Km (Atmosphere is stable: Air will not up and down as much)

DALR Sub-
Height
adiabatic

Super-
adiabatic

Temp
Dispersion of pollutants
 A special case of sub adiabatic conditions is the temperature
inversion, when the air temperature actually increases with altitude
and a layer of warm air exists over a layer of cold air.

Height
Inversion

Temperature
Types of inversion

 There are mainly two types of inversion:

 1. Radiation inversion: Generally happens on cold nights near the
earth’s surface. At night, the ground cools faster than the air; as a
result, the air closer to the ground is cooler than air at higher
altitudes.
 2. Subsidence inversion: It generally takes place at higher
elevations. This happens when a wide layer of air descends and is
heated due to compression.
Vertical dispersion of pollutants

 Eg. The atmosphere is superadiabatic, the ground level temperature

is 30°C and the temperature at an elevation of 1 km is 10°C.
 If a parcel of air at 500 m and 20 C, moves up adiabatically to 1
km, what will be its temperature? What will happen to it ?
Smokestack plumes and lapse rates
 The ambient lapse rate effects how the pollutant or gas emitted
from a chimney (smoke-stack) will disperse.
 It is assumed that the pollutant follows the DALR.
 The dispersion of the pollutants can be categorized into 5 main
categories :
 1. Coning
 2. Looping
 3. Fanning
 4. Fumigation
 5. Lofting
Coning
 Occurs when ambient lapse rate is similar to DALR. The pollutant
from the chimney spreads evenly in all direction forming a cone like
structure.
Looping
 Occurs when ambient lapse rate is more than DALR (super-adiabatic
condition). The air is very unstable and causes the pollutant to move
up and down in a looping form.
Fanning
 Occurs when ambient lapse rate is less than DALR (super-adiabatic
condition). The air is more stable and causes the pollutant to move in
a limited height. It is less polluting.
Fumigation
 Occurs when there is an inversion above the height of the chimney. In
this case the pollutants cannot move up above a certain height and
instead move downwards. This cause more pollution near the ground
level.
Lofting
 When the height of the chimney is above an inversion layer. In this
case, pollutants can move upwards but cannot easily move
downwards. This causes less pollution near the ground level.
Effective height of stack
 Because the pollutants released have some initial velocity and
pressure, they might ascent a certain height before spreading out
horizontally.
 The effective stack height is the height above ground at which the
plume begins to travel downwind the effective release point of the
pollutant and the origin of its dispersion.
Dispersion of pollutants
 Dispersion is the process by which contaminants move through the air
and a plume spreads over a large area, thus reducing the
concentration of the pollutants it contains. The plume spreads both
horizontally and vertically.
 The most commonly used model for the dispersion of gaseous air
pollutants is the Gaussian model
Gaussian plume model
 This model is used to find the concentration of the gaseous
pollutant at the ground level at a certain distance from the
chimney.
 Gaussian model works under the assumption that:
 Wind speed is constant
 The land is relatively flat
 The rate of emission of the pollutant is constant
 The greatest concentration of pollutant molecules is along the plume
center line.
 Molecules diffuse spontaneously from regions of higher concentration
to regions of lower concentration
Gaussian plume model
 If the origin of a cartesian coordinate system is considered at the emission
source, then the pollutants disperse in the x, y and z directions. i.e.
pollutants move both horizontally and vertically.
Gaussian dispersion equation

 Where C is the concentration of pollutant at some point in space

 q is the emission rate of the pollutant (gram/s)
 u is the wind speed (m/s)
 H is the effective height of chimney
 σy is the standard deviation of the plume in y direction
 σz is the standard deviation of the plume in z direction
Gaussian dispersion equation
 Usually we are interested in the ground level concentration of
the pollutant.
 In this case the Gaussian equation is simplified to:
Self cleansing of atmosphere
 There are processes by which the atmosphere cleans itself such as
dispersion by wind, the effect of gravity, contact with the earth‘s
surface, and removal by precipitation.
 These mechanisms through which the concentration of pollutants is
reduced is called ‘self cleansing’ of the atmosphere.
 Action of gravity:
 Particles in the air, if they are larger than about a millimeter in
diameter, are observed to settle out under the influence of gravity.

 However, most particles (smaller than 1 mm in size) of air pollutants

are small enough that their settling velocity is a function of
atmospheric turbulence, viscosity, and friction, as well as of
gravitational acceleration, and settling can be exceedingly slow.
 Settling velocity :

 Gases are removed by gravitational settling only if they are

adsorbed onto particles or if they condense into particulate
matter.
 Surface sink absorption
 Many atmospheric gases are absorbed by the features of the
earth‘s surface, including stones, soil, rocks, vegetation, bodies
of water, and other materials.
 Soluble gases like SO2 dissolve readily in surface water, and
such dissolution can result in measurable acidification of the
water bodies.
 Precipitation
 Air pollutants can also be removed by precipitation (Rainfall or
snowfall). This can be done by two mechanisms.
 In-cloud process
 Below-cloud process
 In cloud process: In this case, rain droplets condense and form rain
droplets around the particulates. They eventually fall down as
rainfall.
 Below cloud process: In this case, the rain droplets absorb or
dissolve and ‘wash out’ the pollutants as they precipitate from the
clouds.
 Both the processes can remove up to 60% of the pollutants in the
atmosphere.
Examples

 Q1) The temperature profile of the atmosphere is given below. If a

100 m tall chimney is releasing gases at 21 degree C at adiabatic
lapse rate, then how high will the gases move ?

Elevation (m) Temperature (c)

0 20
100 18
200 16
300 15
400 16
500 17
600 18
 Q2) A stack of 100 m height is emitting NO2 at the rate of 80 g/s.
Let the wind speed at this height be 10 m/s. Estimate the downwind
concentration of NO2 at a distance of 2 km. Let the standard
deviations along y and z direction be 100 m and 200 m
respectively.
 Q3) Calculate the settling velocity of a particulate pollutant in the
air. The following details are given:
 Particle diameter = 10 um, density = 1 g/cc , air viscosity = 0.0185
g/m-s. Air temperature is 25 degree C.
End