Title: Model chain for buoyant plume dispersion

Authors: Andrea Bisignano; Luca Mortarini; Enrico Ferrero; Stefano Alessandrini

Addresses: Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Viale Teresa Michel 11, 15121 Alessandria, Italy ' Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ISAC), National Research Council (CNR), Corso Fiume 4, 10133, Torino, Italy ' Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Viale Teresa Michel 11, 15121 Alessandria, Italy ' NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA

Abstract: A new original software interface between the WRF mesoscale meteorological model and the SPRAYWEB dispersion model has been developed. The model chain was designed such a highly responsive tool for risk assessment and emergency-response purposes. The model interface reads the wind and temperature fields provided by WRF and interpolates them on a fixed-in-time grid, which is the input to the dispersion model. Furthermore, it calculates the turbulence-parameter vertical profiles, based on the surface-layer data provided by WRF. In this work we simulate the dispersion of a high-buoyancy plume. The model chain performances were tested against the Bull-Run dataset.

Keywords: Lagrangian model; pollution dispersion; plume rise.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2017.089406

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2017 Vol.62 No.2/3/4, pp.200 - 213

Received: 22 Aug 2016
Accepted: 18 Jan 2017
Published online: 23 Jan 2018 *

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