Locating the St. Louis urban plume at 80 and 120 km and some of its characteristics

The feasibility of locating the urban plume of a moderately large urban area, as far as 120 km downwind, is shown. The method utilizes a single engine aircraft and aerosol instrumentation. A summary of the data obtained from 34 flights, during an 8-month period, is presented and the problems involved in interpreting the data are discussed. These difficulties include nonuniform background levels outside the plume, changing relative humidity, low wind speeds and stable atmospheric layers. The plume was characterized by concentrations of small particles (0.15 < r < 0.3 μm) ca. 1.5 times that in background air and concentrations of large particles (0.3 < r < 1.3 μm) usually greater than twice that in the background. The ratio of the concentrations of small particles to large particles in the plume was about one-half of that in the background.