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The Effects Of Vegetative Canopies On Atmospheric Dispersion, John R. Lindell

Theses and Dissertations

This research was conducted to improve our understanding of the effects of vegetative canopy-induced turbulence on the dispersion of air pollution. The computer model most often used to calculate atmospheric dispersion is the Gaussian plume model, which requires some method to compute the downwind dispersions coefficients. These coefficients are a parameterization of the atmospheric stability or the level of turbulence in the atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency's recommended parameterization scheme is the Pasquill-Gifford method. By comparing the Pasquill-Gifford method to the Modified Mitchell method using sigma theta, the standard deviation of the horizontal wind fluctuations, the relative precision of each …