WK6 Meteorology
1. Describe how the use of a tall smoke stack might improve air quality near a large industrial facility.
2. How can topography contribute to pollution in a city or region?
3. From where do hurricanes derive their energy? What factors tend to weaken hurricanes? Would you expect a hurricane to weaken more quickly if it moved over land or over cooler water?
4. Where is the Bermuda high located during the summer and fall? How might the path of a hurricane, moving toward the west from Africa, be affected by the Bermuda High as the hurricane approaches the United States?
5. How do you think pollutants are removed from the atmosphere? Does this occur quickly or slowly?
1. According to the United States Government Accountability Office, tall smokestacks of 500 feet or higher are primarily used at coal plants. In 2011, there were 589 coal-fired power plants still active in the United States. The use of a tall stack help to limit the impact of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the local area. However, while the tall stacks limit the impact in the local region they could also increase the distance which the pollutants travel through the atmosphere harming communities which are “downwind”.
Air Quality. (2015). Retrieved 10 March 2015, from http://www.gao.gov/assets/320/318175.pdf
2. Topography contributes to pollution in a city or region by trapping in the pollutants. In the literature, it states how cold air can carry pollutants downhill from surrounding hillsides; this causes valleys to become prone to pollution. Valleys that are encased by mountains or hills are the most at risk, such as Los Angeles and Mexico City, since the polluted air in essentially trapped by the surrounding terrain.
Ahrens, C. (2015). Essentials of meteorology. Andover: Cengage Learning.
3. Hurricanes derive their energy from warm, tropical oceans as well as evaporating water from the surface of the ocean. The main factor which tends to weaken a hurricane is when it loses its source
2. How can topography contribute to pollution in a city or region?
3. From where do hurricanes derive their energy? What factors tend to weaken hurricanes? Would you expect a hurricane to weaken more quickly if it moved over land or over cooler water?
4. Where is the Bermuda high located during the summer and fall? How might the path of a hurricane, moving toward the west from Africa, be affected by the Bermuda High as the hurricane approaches the United States?
5. How do you think pollutants are removed from the atmosphere? Does this occur quickly or slowly?
1. According to the United States Government Accountability Office, tall smokestacks of 500 feet or higher are primarily used at coal plants. In 2011, there were 589 coal-fired power plants still active in the United States. The use of a tall stack help to limit the impact of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the local area. However, while the tall stacks limit the impact in the local region they could also increase the distance which the pollutants travel through the atmosphere harming communities which are “downwind”.
Air Quality. (2015). Retrieved 10 March 2015, from http://www.gao.gov/assets/320/318175.pdf
2. Topography contributes to pollution in a city or region by trapping in the pollutants. In the literature, it states how cold air can carry pollutants downhill from surrounding hillsides; this causes valleys to become prone to pollution. Valleys that are encased by mountains or hills are the most at risk, such as Los Angeles and Mexico City, since the polluted air in essentially trapped by the surrounding terrain.
Ahrens, C. (2015). Essentials of meteorology. Andover: Cengage Learning.
3. Hurricanes derive their energy from warm, tropical oceans as well as evaporating water from the surface of the ocean. The main factor which tends to weaken a hurricane is when it loses its source