Temperature inversion and mixing height: critical indicators for air pollution in hot arid climate

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) Vol. 97; no. 1; pp. 139 - 155
• Main Authors: Al-Hemoud, Ali, Al-Sudairawi, Mane, Al-Rashidi, Mufreh, Behbehani, Weam, Al-Khayat, Ahmed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.05.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air pollution; Air temperature; Ambient temperature; Arid climates; Aridity; Atmospheric diffusion; Atmospheric dispersion; Boundary layer temperatures; Boundary layers; Civil Engineering; Climate; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental Management; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Inversions; Meteorological parameters; Microwave radiometers; Mixing height; Natural Hazards; Original Paper; Outdoor air quality; Parameters; Planetary boundary layer; Pollution; Pollution dispersion; Pollution sources; Precipitation; Profiles; Radiometers; Relative humidity; Smog; Solar radiation; Temperature; Temperature effects; Temperature inversion; Temperature inversions; Temperature profile; Temperature profiles; Wind speed; Arid climate; Mixing height hazard; Kuwait; Temperature inversion; MTP-5H; Boundary layer
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-019-03631-2

Boundary layer temperature inversion and mixing heights are important parameters in understanding the atmospheric dispersion of air pollution. Surface and elevated inversions were analyzed within the planetary boundary layer over Kuwait, a coastal urban city situated in a typical hot, arid climate. Temperature inversions constitute a natural hazard by trapping smog emitted from pollution sources. Temperature inversions were measured by the Meteorological Temperature Profiler version (MTP-5H) using a scanning microwave radiometer over the course of a complete year (2013). Remote continuous measurements (4 min interval) of temperature profiles were collected (total readings = 130,986). Daytime and nocturnal temperature inversion variations were presented. The effects of five atmospheric parameters, namely ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and precipitation on the surface and elevated inversion, were presented. In general, there was a significant correlation between surface and elevated inversions with four meteorological parameters ( p value ≤ .01). Results show a weak correlation between the inversions analyzed by MTP-5H and the MH modeled by the WRF.