NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF SEA BREEZE FRONTS ON AIR-QUALITY IN COASTAL AND INLAND POLLUTED AREAS

The role of moving sea breeze fronts on air quality in coastal and inland polluted areas was investigated by the numerical simulation of the transport/chemistry of air pollutants, using detailed structures of eddy diffusivity, temperature and flow fields associated with the moving sea breeze fronts. The eddy diffusivity field used was the output of a two-equation turbulence model (i.e. the k-ε{lunate} model) and reasonably well expressed dynamical nature of turbulence in sea breeze, at its front and in an inland mixed layer (Kitada et al., 1987, Proc. Envir. Sani. Eng. Res. 23, 103-113). The transport/chemistry of pollutants was calculated using a comprehensive Eulerian model, which adopts more than twenty chemical species advected (Kitada et al., 1983, Proc. 3rd. Int. Symp. on Numer. Methods in Engng, pp. 223-233; Carmichael et al., 1986, Atmospheric Environment 20, 173-188). Several cases of numerical simulations were performed, being characterized by the locations of emission sources (i.e. coastal or inland), and the temporal activities of those. Results showed the following. In the coastal-source cases, (1) a circulation behind the sea breeze front was responsible for maintaining high concentration zone of photochemical product, just behind the front; (2) the local maximum of the product's concentration appeared at the upper part of the circulation (i.e. around a height of 500 m), where the temperature profile was stably stratified; (3) the concentration profile was vertically-uniform in the lower part of the circulation, where the thermal internal boundary layer extended over; in the inland-source cases, (4) updraft at the front swept away pollutants into the upper layer. Thus the vertical profile of the pollutant, having a peak at a higher level of 900-1000 m above ground, was formed; (5) this polluted zone at the higher layer remained for several hours after the front passed over. Finally, these indicate that the passage of the sea breeze front can result in complex layering of pollutants. © 1990.