Atmospheric Stability Classes

David J. Seidel
EPP Seminar
14 July 2010
 AIR POLLUTION EMISSION PLUMES
Buoyant plumes Plumes which are lighter than air
because they are at a higher temperature and lower density
than the ambient air which surrounds them, or because they
are at about the same temperature as the ambient air but have
a lower molecular weight and hence lower density than the
ambient air
Dense gas plumes Plumes which are heavier than air
because they have a higher density than the surrounding
ambient air. A plume may have a higher density than air
because it has a higher molecular weight than air (for
example, a plume of carbon dioxide).

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 AIR POLLUTION DISPERSION MODELS

Box model The box model is the simplest of the model types
Gaussian model The Gaussian model is perhaps the oldest (circa 1936)
and perhaps the most commonly used model type
Lagrangian model a Lagrangian dispersion model mathematically follows
pollution plume parcels (also called particles) as the parcels move in the
atmosphere and they model the motion of the parcels as a random walk process.
Eulerian model an Eulerian dispersions model is similar to a Lagrangian
model in that it also tracks the movement of a large number of pollution plume
parcels as they move from their initial location
Dense gas model Dense gas models are models that simulate the
dispersion of dense gas pollution plumes (i.e., pollution plumes that are heavier
than air)

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 GAUSSIAN SPREADING IN 2D HAVE A BINORMAL DISTRIBUTION

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 AIR POLLUTANT EMISSION SOURCES
The types of air pollutant emission sources are commonly characterized as either
point, line, area or volume sources:
Point source A point source is a single, identifiable source of air pollutant
emissions (for example, the emissions from a combustion furnace flue gas stack).
Point sources are also characterized as being either elevated or at ground-level. A
point source has no geometric dimensions.
Line sources A line source is one-dimensional source of air pollutant emissions
(for example, the emissions from the vehicular traffic on a roadway).
Area source An area source is a two-dimensional source of diffuse air pollutant
emissions (for example, the emissions from a forest fire, a landfill or the evaporated
vapors from a large spill of volatile liquid).
Volume source A volume source is a three-dimensional source of diffuse air
pollutant emissions. Essentially, it is an area source with a third (height) dimension
(for example, the fugitive gaseous emissions from piping flanges, valves and other
equipment at various heights within industrial facilities such as oil refineries and
petrochemical plants). Another example would be the emissions from an
automobile paint shop with multiple roof vents or multiple open windows.

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF ATMOSPHERIC
TURBULENCE
The amount of turbulence in the ambient atmosphere has a
major effect on the dispersion of air pollution plumes
because turbulence increases the entrainment and mixing of
unpolluted air into the plume and thereby acts to reduce the
concentration of pollutants in the plume (i.e, enhances the
plume dispersion). It is therefore important to categorize the
amount of atmospheric turbulence present at any given time.

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 ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE
Circular eddies of air movements over short timescales than
those that determine wind speed (unstable)
Mechanical Turbulence:
Caused by air moving over and around structures/vegetation
Increases with wind speed
Affected by surface roughness
Thermal Turbulence:
Caused by heating/cooling of the earths surface
Flows are typically vertical
Convection cells of upwards of 1000 - 1500 meters

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 ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY
Concept that describes (non-)movement of air near the
surface
Characterized by vertical temperature gradients (Lapse
Rates)
Dry adiabatic lapse rate () = 0.976 oC/100 m ~ 1 oC/100 m
International standard lapse rate = 0.0066 oC/m

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 STABILITY CONDITIONS
Adiabatic lapse rate
Environmental lapse rate

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 GAUSSIAN PLUME

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 GAUSSIAN (NORMAL) DISTRIBUTION

1 (x ) 2
f ( x) = exp
(2 )1/ 2

f ( x) dx = 1 f ( x) dx = 0.68

f ( x) dx = 0.95
2
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 DOUBLE GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION

f ( y ) f ( z ) = f ( y, z )

1 ( y y ) (z z )
2 2

f ( y, z ) = exp +
y z 2 y z

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 2-D STEADY DISPERSION MODEL
Q y2 (z H )2
c= exp +
2 u y z 2 y
2
2 z
2

Solution for windspeed of u m/s and continuous release

of Q g/s of pollutant at : x = y = 0 (stack location)
and z = H (the effective stack height)

H = h + h
h : physical stack height,
2Kx
h : plume rise due to buoyancy =
u

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 DISPERSION COEFFICIENTS
2 Ky x 2 Kz x
y = z =
u u
Ky and Kz approximately proportional to wind speed
Ky/u and Kz/u approximately constant
y and z should vary approximately with x(1/2)

Field observations show more complex variation

Wind speed and solar flux combine to give stability
classes A - F

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 HORIZONTAL DISPERSION COEFFICIENT

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 VERTICAL DISPERSION COEFFICIENT

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 ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY
Two governing factors:
Temperature gradient (lapse rate)
Turbulence due to wind

Dry adiabatic lapse rate : 10 C / km

Saturated adiabatic lapse rate : 6 C /km
Standard profile : 6.6 C / km

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 ATMOSPHERIC STABILITY CLASSES (PASQUILL 1961,
TURNER 1970)

Determinations based on inexpensive observations of

wind speed, solar radiation, cloudiness
Table 1: The Pasquill stability classes
Stability class Definition
A very unstable
B unstable
C slightly unstable
D neutral
E slightly stable
F stable

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Table 2: Meteorological conditions that define the Pasquill stability
classes

Table 3-1 Wark, Warner &

Davis
Table 6-1 de Nevers
 PARAMETERIZATIONS
From two standard deviations more is known about y , since most experiments are
ground-level.Vertical concentration distributions are needed to determine z

Ground-leveled releases are not exactly gaussian in vertical.

For complete parameterization we need all these variables
not always available

Pasquill stability categories A F (1961)

Surface windspeed
Daytime incoming solar radiation
Nighttime cloud cover

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 PASQUILL STABILITY CLASS
Would like to predict atmospheric lapse rate from
readily observable properties
Pasquill (1961) introduced notion of stability class
Based on 3 characteristics
Intensity of solar radiation
Near-surface wind speed
Extent of nighttime cloud cover
Relationship of stability class to lapse rate

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 PASQUILL STABILITY CLASS

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 PASQUILL-GIFFORD (P-G) CURVES
Distance from source [m]

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 STACK PLUME: LOOPING
Strong turbulence

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 STACK PLUME: CONING

Strong wind, no turbulence

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 STACK PLUME: FANNING

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 STACK PLUME: FUMIGATION

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 STACK PLUME: LOFTING

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 STACK PLUME: TRAPPING

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 ADVANCED METHODS OF CATEGORIZING
ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE
Many of the more advanced air pollution dispersion models do not categorize
atmospheric turbulence by using the simple meteorological parameters
commonly used in defining the six Pasquill classes as shown in Table 2. The
more advanced models use some form of Monin-Obukhov similarity theory.
For example, the US EPA's most advanced model, AERMOD, no longer uses
the Pasquill stability classes to categorize atmospheric turbulence. Instead, it
uses the surface roughness length and the Monin-Obukhov length.
As another example, the United Kingdom's most advanced model, ADMS
3,uses the Monin-Obukhov length, the boundary layer height and the
windspeed to categorize the atmospheric turbulence.
The detailed explanation of the mathematical formulation for the turbulence
categorization methods used in AERMOD, ADMS 3 and other advanced air
pollution dispersion models is very complex and beyond the scope of this
article. More detailed explanations are available on the Internet

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 TWO MAJOR TYPES OF INVERSION
Subsidence Inversion: descent of a layer of air within a high
pressure air mass
Radiational Inversion: radiation at night from the earths
surface into the local atmosphere

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 Mixing Height
Mixing height: When an inversion aloft is formed, the
atmospheric layer between the Earth's surface and the bottom of
the inversion aloft is known as the mixing layer and the distance
between the Earth's surface and the bottom of inversion aloft is
known as the mixing height. Any air pollution plume dispersing
beneath an inversion aloft will be limited in vertical mixing to that
which occurs beneath the bottom of the inversion aloft
(sometimes called the lid). Even if the pollution plume penetrates
the inversion, it will not undergo any further significant vertical
mixing. As for a pollution plume passing completely through an
inversion layer aloft, that rarely occurs unless the pollution
plume's source stack is very tall and the inversion lid is fairly low.

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 References
1. Meteorology and Atomic Energy, David Slade, 1968

2. Workbook of Atmospheric Dispersion Estimates, D. Bruce

Turner, 1970, 1994 - 2nd Ed

3. Handbook on Atmospheric Diffusion, Hanna, Briggs,

Hosker, 1982

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