Abstract
Hazardous situations in air pollution can many a times be avoided in case short term local weather forecasting of the boundary layer meteorology becomes available. Amongst the various remote sensing techniques, it has been seen that acoustic remote sensing (SODAR) of the lower atmosphere can be employed to determine and predict the atmospheric boundary layer meteorological parameters. In specific, information can be obtained about thermal stratification, mixing height, low level disturbances, depth of the planetary boundary layer, stability classification, wind velocity, wind variances, turbulence parameters, and diffusion characteristics etc. when SODAR is used in conjunction with surface level measurements of the usual meteorological parameters.
In the paper a brief description of the acoustic remote sensing technique and a review of the work done during the last two decades to determine the various air quality related meteorological parameters has been given. The methodology to determine mixing height, stability classification and diffusion and dispersion characteristics using mostly the information from the SODAR echograms has also been described. The SODAR echograms obtained at Delhi for the period May 1977 to April 1982 have been processed and analyzed using pattern recognition to determine these parameters. Doppler SODAR information of wind speed and direction have not been treated for the above purpose. Using the Gaussian dispersion model, pollution concentration downwind of a emission source (in the present case it is a cement factory at Nimbahera, Chittorgarh, India) has also been computed with the help of SODAR determined data. It has been found that measured values with the help of high volume sampler conform to the estimated pollution concentration. A peak in the value of the estimated pollution concentration during the fumigation period has also been seen.
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Abbreviations
- A r :
-
Area of the receiving antenna
- D :
-
Stack diameter [m]
- F :
-
Vertical flux of the buoyant plume
- K :
-
von Karman's constant equal to 1.4
- L :
-
Monin-Obukhov length [m]
- L a :
-
Acoustic attenuation along the path inclusive of the transducer efficiencies
- P :
-
Ambient air pressure [hPa]
- P 0 :
-
Total pressure [hPa]
- P r :
-
Received acoustic power
- P t :
-
Transmitted acoustic power
- Q :
-
Quantity of stack emission per unit time [g s−1]
- Q 0 :
-
Surface heat flux
- R :
-
Range to the scattering volume [m]
- R i :
-
Richardson number
- R s :
-
Inner stack radius at the top [m]
- R if :
-
Flux Richardson number
- T :
-
Ambient air temperature [K]
- T s :
-
Average temperature inside the stack [K]
- U :
-
Horizontal wind speed [m s−1]
- U z :
-
Horizontal wind speed at the stack height [m s−1]
- V s :
-
Average exit velocity at the stack top [m s−1]
- Z :
-
Depth of the mixed boundary layer, i.e. the height of the atmospheric boundary layer [m]
- Z i :
-
Inversion height, i.e. the distance between the ground and the base of the elevated inversion [m]
- Z 0 :
-
Length parameter of roughness [m]
- a :
-
Empirical constant equal to 1.5 in stable conditions and 10 in unstable conditions
- b :
-
Empirical constant equal to 1 in stable conditions and 10 in unstable conditions
- c :
-
Velocity of acoustic waves in air [m s−1]
- d :
-
Distance from source to receptor [m]
- h :
-
Mixing depth as per Holzworth model [m]
- h e :
-
Effective stack height [m]
- Δh :
-
Plume rise height [m]
- g :
-
Acceleration due to gravity
- k :
-
Wave number
- m :
-
A constant equal to 0.45
- p :
-
A variable number for the various stabilities
- w :
-
Vertical wind velocity [m s−1]
- w′:
-
Fluctuations in vertical wind velocity [m s−1]
- w*:
-
Mixed layer velocity scale
- x,y,z :
-
The three coordinates [m]
- 3.5x*:
-
Distance to the point downwind of the stack where the plume is no longer rising
- z 0 :
-
Measure at the surface level [m]
- z s :
-
Depth of the thermal plumes on the sodar echograms [m]
- C 2e :
-
Humidity structure parameter
- C 2m :
-
Concentration structure parameter
- C 2n :
-
Refractive index structure parameter
- C 2T :
-
Temperature structure parameter
- C 2v :
-
Velocity structure parameter
- C p :
-
Specific heat at constant pressure
- C eT :
-
Cross correlation structure coefficient of temperature and humidity
- α:
-
Constant approximately equal to 1.4
- β:
-
Constant equal to 6
- ϱ:
-
Density of air
- ψ:
-
Pollution concentration [g m−3]
- τ:
-
Transmitted pulse length
- ⊙:
-
Potential temperature
- ⊙′:
-
Fluctuations in potential temperature
- θ:
-
Scattering angle
- φmax :
-
Martin's function
- σR :
-
Ratio of backscatter to forward scatter intensities from the same volume
- σW :
-
Standard deviation of the vertical wind velocity [m s−1]
- σ y :
-
Cross wind dispersion coefficient
- σ z :
-
Vertical dispersion coefficient
- σφ :
-
Standard deviation of the vertical wind direction [deg]
- σθ :
-
Standard deviation of the horizontal wind direction [deg]
- σ(θ):
-
Scattering cross section at angle
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