EPA Model Development for Stable Plume Impingement on Elevated Terrain Obstacles

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Complex Terrain Model Development program is designed as a series of progressively advanced model development efforts accompanied by requisite field studies to provide data for model evaluation. Plume impingement studies have been performed during 1980 at Cinder Cone Butte near Boise, Idaho, and during 1982 at Hogback Ridge near Farmington, New Mexico. Experimental protocol consisted of terrain-surface measurements of dual-tracer plumes emitted from mobile cranes during stable atmospheric conditions. Dimensions of simultaneously-released oil - fog plumes were obtained prior to impingment by lidar and by time exposure photographs. Accompanying meteorological sensors included instrumented towers, tethersondes, monostatic and Doppler acoustic sounders, and optical crosswind anemometers.