Title: Diurnal variation of the mixing-layer height and polonium concentration in the air

Authors: Ewa Krajny, Leszek Osrodka, Jan Skowronek, Krystian Skubacz, Marek Wojtylak

Addresses: Department of Monitoring and Environmental Research, Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), Warsaw, Branch of Katowice, Bratkow 10, 40 045 Katowice, Poland. ' Department of Monitoring and Environmental Research, Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), Warsaw, Branch of Katowice, Bratkow 10, 40 045 Katowice, Poland. ' Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU), Kossutha 6, 40 844 Katowice, Poland. ' Laboratory of Radiometry, Central Mining Institute (GIG), Pl. Gwarkow 1, 40 166 Katowice, Poland. ' Institute of Mathematics, Silesian University (US), Bankowa 14, 40 007 Katowice, Poland

Abstract: The Mixing Height (MH) is one of the most important parameters that characterise the range of the atmospheric turbulence. This parameter shows characteristic diurnal variation but cannot be measured immediately. Therefore, it is evaluated indirectly by measuring other quantities. The measurement of radon concentration in the atmospheric air is one of the methods using natural occurring radioactivity to fulfil this task. However, for various reasons, such measurements can be difficult because the natural level of radon concentration in the atmospheric air is rather low. The newly developed method described in this paper relies on the measurement of polonium ²¹⁸Po concentration in the air and was examined during measurement campaigns performed in hot seasons. The acoustic sodar instrumentation was chosen as a reference method. As a result, the statistical model was developed to define the MH and the obtained results made it possible to find statistically significant relation between concentration of ²¹⁸Po in the air and this parameter.

Keywords: mixing height; atmospheric boundary condition; natural radioactivity; alpha spectroscopy; polonium concentration; atmospheric turbulence; diurnal variation; acoustic sodar instrumentation; air pollution; air quality; dispersion modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2005.007658

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2005 Vol.25 No.1/2/3/4, pp.95 - 104

Published online: 31 Aug 2005 *

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