Atmospheric Dispersion

Catalog description

The basic principles of atmospheric flow, introduction to the modeling of turbulent diffusion, and the use of EPA dispersion models. METEO 455 Atmospheric Dispersion (3) Students will learn both the theory and current practice of numerical modeling of the turbulent dispersion of effluents from sources in the atmospheric boundary layer. Lab sessions involve hands-on experience with the numerical models used in the applied dispersion community. Classroom sessions cover the boundary-layer meteorology and dispersion theory on which these models are based. In laboratory sessions, students become acquainted with the present practice of short-range atmospheric dispersion modeling through: * exploring the air-quality resources available on the World Wide Web * examining the design of the air-quality models used today in permitting and hazardous-release applications *discussing the input data needed by the models, the nature and reliability of their predictions and the advantages of improved models including AERMOD * running the models SCREEN3 and ISC (the U.S. EPA's Industrial Source Complex model). Lectures on boundary-layer meteorology include: * the atmospheric boundary layer, turbulence, and the surface energy budget * buoyancy, stability and their influence on the atmospheric boundary layer * mass conservation in fluid motion, turbulent and molecular fluxes and their roles in atmospheric dispersion * the contrast between instantaneous and average properties of turbulent flow, the convergence of averages and implications for dispersion models.