Armospheric Enwonmenr Vol. 1 I, pp. 59-64. Pergamon Press 1977. Printed in Great Bntam.

CHARACTERIZATION OF STEADY WIND INCIDENTS

FOR AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT
WILPEN L. GORR
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.
and
ROBERTW. DUNLAP
Carnegie-Mellon University. Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.

(First receired 20 January 1976 and in jinal form 16 July 1976)

Abstract-Investigation of ambient SO1 data from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania shows that most violations
of the 24 and 3-h air quality standards are due to point sources of emissions and occur during high
and steady winds, not atmospheric stagnations. A criterion for identifying such periods of adverse
winds is empirically derived and applied, and results pertinent to air quality management are discussed.

INTRODUCTION THEORY

Atmospheric stagnation is often the meteorological This section develops classifications of the meteoro-
condition associated with poor air quality in the logical potential for poor air quality for time intervals
short-term; however, this is not the case for sulfur of 24 h or less. From the point of view of air quality
dioxide (SO,) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Examin- management under the Clean Air Act Amendments
ation of telemetry data shows that the majority of of 1970, the operant classification has been “stagna-
violations of 24 and 3-h air quality standards (AQS’s) tion” and “other”: stagnation days have the potential
is associated with protracted periods of steady-state for AQS violations but “other” days do not. Here
diffusion with high and steady winds. Such periods we identify and define an additional class, the SWI,
are here termed “steady wind incidents” (SWI’s). Our which also has the potential for AQS violations.
purpose is to characterize the SW1 and relate it to The underlying mechanism of a stagnation is the
the problem of air quality management. accumulation of emissions trapped in a volume of
Pooler (1965) investigatied a “high-wind fumiga- air, due in part to the operation of a non-stationary
tion” condition for large power plants in which high stochastic process characterized by light and variable
wind speeds limit plume rise so that emissions are winds. The SW1 is defined to be the opposite condi-
brought to the ground before adequate dilution tion: a period of steady-state diffusion, such as that
occurs. Shirvaikar et ul. (1969) and Singer and Nagle characterized by the Gaussian plume model, where
(1970) studied wind persistence and steadiness in con- the wind direction remains nearly constant. A major
junction with the study of releases of hazardous variable for use in classification is the standard devi-
materials. They were concerned with the possibility ation of wind direction in the horizontal plane, cr,.,,
that steady winds could focus a plume onto a fixed calculated from hourly observations of surface wind
geographic area for extended periods of time, thus data. It is well known that large values of oA corre-
leading to high dosages. An SW1 is produced when spond to stagnations, especially in the lowest 30m
a condition of high-wind fumigation is coupled with of the atmosphere (Slade, 1968). Based on surface
persistence of wind direction for 8-24 h. data, Slade (1968), Van der Hoven (1969), and Singer
Analyses of steady wind situations have been and Nagle (1970) reported that wind speed and cA
mostly for functional purposes; e.g. Montgomery and are inversely correl,ated. Hence, an SW1 tends to have
Corn (1967) performed validation studies of steady- high wind speeds, i.e. tends te be coupled to periods
state diffusion models, and Van der Hoven (1969) sug- of “high-wind fumigation.” Wind data from airport
gested the use of persistent wind periods to guide the meteorological stations, usually taken at 10 m, there-
extension of diffusion models from lo-min averaging fore have value in discriminating stagnations from
times to longer averaging times. Applications more SWI’S.
closely related to air quality management include Whether durations of steady winds are long enough
Munn et al. (1969) who used steadiness to establish to cause violations of AQS’s under pollutant emission
the effects of a particular emissions source on air qua- conditions and accompanying diffusion processes in
lity and McAdie and Gillies (1973) who detected a urban areas becomes a question open to empirical
high wind speed condition correlated to high values analysis. Given a time series of aerometric data, to
of a combined pollutant index in Sarnia, Ontario. answer this question we eliminate the class of time
59
60 WILPENL. GORRand R. W. DUNLAP
intervals not associated with AQS violations. Stagna-
tion periods are then identified and eliminated using
data taken by the U.S. Weather Service (in this case
as processed by local meteorological consultants). All
remaining violations are potential members of the
SW1 class or, perhaps, other unspecified classes. If
there is a cluster of violations in this remaining set
with the qualitative characteristics of an SWI-low
uA and high wind speed-then there is evidence that
the SW1 exists. Furthermore, the boundaries of this
cluster can be taken as an initial definition of the
SWI.
In the Empirical Study Section below, Q* and aver-
age wind speed, ii, are tabulated for periods of high
SOZ levels that cause AQS violations. Most AQS vio-
lations not classified as stagnations fall into a region
qualitatively matching the SWI.
DATA
The Allegheny County Bureau of Air Pollution
Control had seven telemetered stations using Philips
SO1 analyzers during the period of this study. These
are shown on a map of Allegheny County (Pittsburgh)
in Fig. 1 along with the sites and average 1972 SO*
emission rates for strong point sources. Pittsburgh
does not have significant area sources of SO2 due
to the use of natural gas for domestic and commercial
space heating. (See Dunlap et al., 1973; Gorr, 1973;
Rubin, 1974 for additional characteristics of SOZ
concentrations in Pittsburgh.)
00 STEEL MILLS
00 STEAM AND ELECTRICITY
0 SOe EMISSION RATE (gs-‘1
0 SO2 AMBIENT AIR MONITOR
Fig. 1. Map of Allegheny County showing point sources of SO,, 1972 average SO, emission rates
and sites of telemetered SO, monitors.
At the time of this study, hourly and daily samples
of SOZ were available from the seven monitors for
a period including November 1971-April 1973. These
data were first reduced to the set of all AQS viola-
tions. There were 41 violations of the 24-h AQS
(0.14 ppm) with 24 at Logans Ferry, 10 at Hazelwood
and seven at Liberty-Boro Clairton. Also there were
21 violations of the 3-h AQS (0.50ppm) with 20 at
Logans Ferry and one at Liberty Boro-Clairton.
Some variety exists in the monitor and source con-
figurations of this reduced data set, summarized as
follows: (1) Logans Ferry monitor is on the windward
side of a hill facing two utility power plants located
in a river valley (see Fig. 4); (2) both the Hazelwood
monitor and the integrated steel plant impacting it
are in a river valley; (3) Liberty Boro-Clairton moni-
tor is on the plateau of a hill downwind from a large
metallurgical coke plant located in a river valley.
Surface wind data are from the Greater Pittsburgh
Airport, located in the western portion of Allegheny
County. Upper air data are also from this airport
and were obtained from Denardo and McFarland
Weather Services, West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
EMPIRICALSTUDY
Examination of 24-h AQS violations indicates that
the concentration time series for each violation tends
to contain a single, continuous interval of high con-
centrations. A “data block” is therefore defined to be
a continuous interval of time during which each
GENERATION
I IO
 Characterization of steady wind incidents 61

100
0.70 15.6
3
50 ::
0.60 13.4 =
; t
0’
0.50 II.2 5
m 6
0.40 6.9 0 300 ‘$
z:
G
0.30 6.7 g 250
P
0.20 4.6 :. 200 1
a ;
% 2.2 = I50 2

IO0
12 16 20 24

0 SO2 at Lopona Ferry

0 SO2 at Hazelwood

-Wind direction

-- Wlnd speed

Fig. 2. Time series of aerometric data showing two data blocks

hourly average SO* concentration exceeds the 24-h
AQS, 0.14ppm. For convenience, only durations of
8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 h are used. This leads to some
relaxations of the definition; some qualifying hours
are dropped from boundaries of some intervals and
in other instances, unqualified hours are added. All
intervals are chosen to maximize the average SO2
concentration for the data block. In a few cases, there
are interior data points less than 0.14ppm. For
example, Fig. 2 shows two data blocks, each 16 h in
duration. The Logans Ferry data block is character-
ized by high and steady winds. The Hazelwood data
block, however, appears to be an anomaly with re-
spect to our classification scheme, being part a yet
unidentified condition and part SWI.
Table 1 contains frequencies of data blocks accord-
ing to duration and average SO2 concentration. Con-
ditions leading to the choice of all 41 data blocks
prove to be necessary conditions for AQS violations
(at least one hour must have a concentration in excess
of 0.14 ppm). Conditions associated with data block
durations greater than 16 h are also sufficient; that
is, the balance of the 24-h period containing such a
data block could have any SO1 concentration and
the AQS would still be violated.
All but three of the 21 violations of the 3-h AQS
are subsets of data blocks summarized in Table 1,
so that violations of the 3-h standard tend to accom-
pany violations of the 24-h standard. The notion of
a “data block” is not relevant to a sample size of
only three, so the data blocks for 3-h AQS violations
are simply the violations themselves.
Figure 3 shows sampled values of U and eA pairs
from the data blocks, representing periods of AQS
violations. Shaded data points represent those data
blocks associated with ground-based inversions, while
unshaded data points represent data blocks poten-
tially classifiable as SWI’s. For comparison purposes,
curves of eA vs U averaged over meteorological condi-
tions representative of the entire 1971-1973 period
are also shown. These curves are plotted for both
8 and 24-h averaging times to depict the range of
data block durations.
Based on theory, stagnations would be expected to
lie in the upper left portion of the diagram, SWI’s
in the lower right. Stagnations should also lie above
the curves except in the extreme left portjon of the
diagram, where the percentage of all days that are
stagnations is likely to be high. Similarly, SWI’s
should lie below the curves except for the extreme
right portion of the diagram where the percentage
of all days that are SWI’s is likely to be high. These

Table 1. Frequencies of data blocks according to duration and average SO,

concentration

Average SOa (ppm)

Duration 0.140 0.200 0.300 0.400 0.500 0.600
(h) 0.199 0.299 0.399 0.499 0.599 0.699

8 6 6 3 2 1
12 1 4 3 1
16 3 4 2 1
20 1
24 1 1 1
62 WILPEN L. GORR and R. W. DUNLAP

.Table 2. Wind rose for steady wind incidents*

direction(“)
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 Wi;: 85 95 105 115 125 135 145 155 165

.!z 0.45
1 1.34
H 2.24 0.25 0.25 0.25
6 3.13 0.25 0.25 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.25 0.75 0.50 0.25 0.25 0.25
.c
z 4.02 0.75 0.25 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.50 1.00 0.50 0.50 0.75 0.75 0.25 0.50
& 4.92 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.50 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 1.00 0.50 0.25 0.25
m,^ 5.81 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.50 0.75 0.25
‘D ‘w 6.71 0.25 0.50 0.25
.9b 7.60 0.25 0.25 0.25
“0 8.50
9.39
z
‘5 10.28
a >10.73
zP 1.75 0.75 1.50 1.00 0.25 1.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 1.50 1.50 3.00 2.25 1.00 1.00 0.50 0.00

* Based on greater Pittsburgh Airport data, years 1961-1964.

Averaging time, 24 h; cA I 20”. Values are yearly frequency.

expectations are largely met except that three stagna- To develop a wind rose for meteorological periods
tions at low and moderate wind speeds lie below the conducive to the SWI, 24-h moving averages of Ii and
curves. accompanying values of bA were calculated from
Thirty-one of the 33 data blocks classified as poss- hourly wind data at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport
ible SWI’s in Fig. 3 have 0” I 20” and we propose for the years 196&1964. In cases where more than
this as the initial definition of an SWI. There is a 24 consecutive hours satisfied the definition, trA I 20”,
risk of classifying some stagnations as SWI’s in the the 24-h period with the minimum uA was used to
absence of specific stagnation data; however, stagna- represent the SWI. Table 2 gives the resultant wind
tion data exist for most cases and in any event, further rose, showing yearly frequencies of average wind
restrictions can be added to the SW1 definition. For speed and wind direction for the 77 days per year
example, Gorr (1973) also included a restriction on classified as SWI’s. By contrast, there were 36 stagna-
average wind speed, ii 2 6.3 m s-l, which is likely to tion advisories per year on the average in the 3-y
exclude most stagnations. Such a restriction is not
included here because the maximum concentration
for a particular configuration of a stack and air qua-
lity monitor depends on wind speed, so it is possible
that steady winds with moderate (as opposed to
“high”) values of li could cause high pollutant con-
centrations. Also, since gA and E are inversely corre-
lated, either variable can be dropped while still retain-
ing much of the information conveyed by both vari-
ables.
For violations of the 3-h SO1 AQS, only one of
21 time periods can be classified as a stagnation, and
it is a subset of a stagnation at Liberty Boro-Clairton
shown in Fig. 3. The balance of the violations are
at Logans Ferry and have characteristics of SWI’s.
Sixteenofthe21haveE28ms-‘anda,< 15”,and
either of these conditions is suggested for definition. 4 6 12
AVERAGE WIND SPEED.E(mi’)

Monitoring Stations Clasritiootion

APPLICATIONS
0 Hazelwood I Stagnation

Next, we determine the frequencies of SWI’s in dif- o Logans Ferry 0 Possible SW1
A Liberty Bore-Clairton
ferent wind speed and direction classes by applying
the criterion uA < 20” to several years’ surface wind Wind Data

data. Such an approach is necessary, since a simple --- Averaged over 24-hour periods
- Averaged over S-hour periods
tabulation of SWI’s detected through violations
reported at SO;? monitoring sites is biased by the par- Fig. 3. Plot showing uA and ii pairs for data blocks repre-
ticular source-monitor configurations involved in the senting AQS violations, curves averaged over all meteoro-
monitoring network. logical conditions.
 Characterization of steady wind incidents 63

175 185 195 205 215 225 235 245 255 265 215 285 295 305 315 325 335 345 355
0.00
0.50 0.25 0.75
0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 1.75
0.25 0.25 0.50 0.25 0.25 0.50 0.25 4.50
0.25 0.25 0.25 0.75 1.00 1.00 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.25 14.00
0.50 0.50 1.50 0.50 1.50 1.00 0.75 0.50 0.50 0.25 0.50 0.75 0.75 0.50 0.50 1.00 16.50
0.25 1.50 0.50 0.50 1.25 2.50 0.75 1.75 1.25 1.00 0.75 1.25 0.25 0.75 17.25
0.25 0.50 0.75 0.75 0.50 0.25 1.50 0.50 0.75 1.00 0.75 0.75 9.25
0.25 0.25 0.25 1.50 1.25 0.25 0.25 0.50 0.25 0.75 0.25 6.50
0.25 0.75 0.25 0.50 0.50 0.25 0.25 0.25 3.00
0.50 0.25 0.75
0.25 0.25
0.25 0.25 0.50
0.75 0.25 0.25 1.75 5.0 4.0 4.5 6.75 7.00 2.5 4.00 3.5 2.75 3.75 1.75 2.00 1.75 1.00 1.75 77.00

period August 1971-July 1974. We might conclude A to Logans Ferry is optimal for peak SO1 concen-
that there are twice as many SWI’s as stagnations; trations. Hence we have some indication that plant
however, if we also add a “high wind speed” criterion B does not significantly affect the Logans Ferry moni-
to the definition of an SW1 (such as Z 2 6.3 m s-l), tor, but plant A does.
then there would be only 20 SWI’s per year with This is a typical finding: SWI’s tend to decouple
roughly twice as many stagnations. an urban airshed into several nearly independent
The most prevalent mean wind directions for the airsheds or “hotspots.” In Fig. 4 we see that the
SW1 wind rose are from the southwest. Consistent Springdale SOZ monitor is upwind of plant A dur-
with Van der Hoven’s findings (1969), there is good ing SWI’s that affect Logans Ferry. The range of
qualitative matching of frequencies from this wind 24-h SO, AQS violations at Logans Ferry is 0.14-0.64
rose with frequencies from the annual wind direction ppm during SWI’s, while the corresponding range of
rose. Monthly frequencies indicate that the SW1 is SO, concentrations at the Springdale monitor is
a cold weather phenomenon, with a maximum occur- 0.01-0.07 ppm. Thus background concentrations are
rence of 9 per month in January and a minims an order of ~gnitude smaller than monitored con-
of two in August. centrations at Logans Ferry during SWI’s.
The SW1 wind rose can now be used in conjunction Simple linear rollback calculations on plant A
with diffusion process calculations to analyze AQS emissions are therefore appropriate to calculate emis-
violations at the Logans Ferry site. Figure 4 is a topo- sions reductions needed to achieve AQS’s at Logans
graphic map showing the Logans Ferry and Spring- Ferry. By using the observed second highest 24-h con-
dale monitors, and the primary cause of AQS viola- centration of 0.37ppm and assuming a background
tions--electric utility power plants A and B. Also of 0.05 ppm, such a calculation shows a 72% reduc-
shown is the 46” range (from 234” to 280”) of observed tion in emissions from plant A would be required
mean wind directions for SW&, as reported from the to meet the AQS of 0.14ppm.
data blocks represented in Fig. 3. The Logans Ferry
monitor tends to have AQS violations for high wind
speeds (ii 2: 6.3 m s-i), hence only the high wind
speed portion of Table 2 is pertinent to the analysis.
This abbreviated SW1 wind rose predicts critical di-
rections for these incidents to be between 230” and
ZO”, with 10 of the total of 20 SWI’s per year in
this range of wind directions. Thus, the Logans Ferry
monitor is nearly optimally located to detect SWI’s.
A 1972 SOZ source inventory for power plants A
and B is shown in Table 3. Both plants are public
utilities generating electricity from fossil fuels; how-
ever, plant B is a modern plant with a tall stack and
plant A is an old plant with relatively short stacks.
Montgomery et al. (1973) have indicated that tall
stacks do not generally produce violations of AQS’s
during the neutral stability or coning condition which
accompanies the SWI. Leahey (1974) provides results Fig. 4. Map showing the Logans Ferry and Springdale
that indicate that the downwind distance from plant SOZ monitors and point sources of SOz.
64 WILPEN L. GORR and R. W. DUNLAP
Table 3. Source inventory for the Logans Ferry area (1972)
SOz emission Height
Source rate (g s-r) (m)
Plant A 950 64
Plant B 1200 228
CONCLUSION
The SW1 meteorological condition has been
defined and investigated empirically. It has been
found to be an important constraint which restricts
the ability to meet short-term AQS’s in the Pittsburgh
region, an industrialized area with large point source
emissions. SW1 conditions are estimated to occur
with frequency one-half to twice as often as stagna-
tions in Pittsburgh. Analysis of violations of 3-h and
24-h SOa AQS’s for the region show a majority of
violations at seven monitoring sites are actually due
to SWI’s, principally because of the optimal location
of one monitoring site for SW1 conditions. A princi-
pal recommendation from this paper is that respon-
sible governmental and industrial air pollution con-
trol officials examine wind data for SW1 potential and
locate monitors optimally for detection of these pollu-
tion incidents.
The SW1 is inherently simple to analyze once iden-
tified. It involves decoupled urban airsheds and thus
relatively few sources per monitor. Monitoring data
can be directly useful in control because of the
upwinddownwind relationship of SWI’s, as shown
here with the Springdale and Logans Ferry monitors.
Also, the simple Gaussian plume diffusion model is
applicable and short travel times to the peak concen-
tration do not permit pollutant decay.
In future work it would be desirable to obtain sur-
face wind data with a higher sampling rate than the
hourly samples used here. The task of forecasting
meteorological situations leading to SWI’s may need
some investigation, although Denardo and McFar-
land Weather Services in Pittsburgh now perform this
service for the local control agency. A potential appli-
cation of SWI’s might be in the development of stack
height regulations that relate directly to AQS’s. Pre-
vious work for such regulations, such as Hawkins and
Nonhebel (1955) and Nonhebel (1960), are based on
steady winds of very short duration, and should be
revised on the basis of SWI’s.
Finally, it would be useful from a cost-benefit view-
point to place some priorities on the control of SWI’s
vs the control of stagnations, both in terms of the
extent of the geographic areas affected and the fre-
quencies of occurrence.
Acknowledgements-Appreciation is expressed to members
of the Allegheny County Bureau of Air Pollution Control
and especially Deputy Director R. J. Chleboski whose
Stack parameters
Dia. Temp Velocity
(m) (“K) (m s-r)
4.9 460 9.0
6.4 400 25.0
efforts resulted in much of the information for this study.
Assistance in identifying stagnation periods for the data
set is gratefully acknowledged from Denardo and McFar-
land Weather Services, West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Partial
support was provided by the Pennsylvania Science and
Engineering Foundation and the Environmental Studies
Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University.
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