Dispersion of Atmospheric Pollutants in Flow over the Shoreline of a Large Body of Water

Abstract

Simulation of pollutant dispersion and mixed-layer development in a shoreline fumigation regime was studied using a two-dimensional vertical plane model employing level two or three (depending on the experiment) from the hierarchy of turbulence closure schemes of Mellor and Yamada (1974). A one-dimensional version of the model using hierarchy level three which includes nonlocal effects in the turbulence simulation was verified with Wangara data from Day 34. Levels two and three were then compared using the two-dimensional model under conditions as measured at Waukegan, Illinois, on 28 June 1974. Predictions from level two, a simpler and purely local scheme, are comparable to level three for both pollutant concentration and mixed-layer depth at least with winds about 3 m s−1, except within 500 m of shore and for a short distance above the inversion base. There is, however, little difference in cost between the two schemes in the present model, making level three preferable because of its greater generality and smoother predicted fields. Predicted mixed-layer depth over land was much less than observed at Waukegan using either turbulence scheme. It appears that this is not due to inadequacies of the turbulence simulation but to three-dimensional features of the actual situation which could not be described by the two-dimensional model.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• University of Wisconsin–Madison US

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