The effect of mesoscale flows on regional atmospheric transport in a complex terrain

Abstract

Model results simulated over a complex terrain under a synoptically calm condition, using a three-dimensional (3-D) regional-scale meteorological acid deposition model (RMADM), show that thermally induced mesoscale circulations (MCs): sea-and land-breeze circulations and up- and down-slope flow circulations play a fundamental role in determining how the pollutants being dispersed. Analysis showed that under synoptically calm condition, the role played by the MC would dilute the smoke released during the early stage of the emission; the accumulation, however, would become important if the synoptically calm condition lasts long. Since the structure and intensity of the MCs depend on geography and topographical allocation, land surface coverage, incoming solar radiation intensity and so on, it makes the estimates of source-reception relationship and long-range atmospheric dispersion more difficulty. It concluded that it is impossible for a pollution model to correctly simulate smokes transport using only the synoptic station data, since the mesoscale information can not be resolved from these datasets.