Wet Removal of Pollutants from Gaussian Plumes: Basic Linear Equations and Computational Approaches

Abstract Over the past several years, a number of Gaussian plume–based computer codes have been produced. These codes describe transport, transformation, and deposition of air pollutants under a variety of atmospheric conditions. For a number of reasons, there is increasing interest in simulating wet-deposition processes in such codes, and several approaches have been applied to this end. Some of these approaches involve elaborate solubility and chemistry characterizations, but many of them resort to a diversity of approximate techniques. This paper presents a procedure that can be used as a practical guide to improve many of these formulations, especially for the case of pollutant gases. The approach takes the form of a set of analytical equations that correspond to five kinds of Gaussian plume formulations: standard bivariate-normal point-source plumes, line-source plumes, unrestricted instantaneous puffs, and point-source plumes and puffs that experience reflection from inversion layers aloft. These eq...