Turbulent Fluxes and Pollutant Mixing during Wintertime Air Pollution Episodes in Complex Terrain

Cold air pools (CAPs) are stagnant stable air masses that form in valleys and basins in the winter. Low wintertime insolation limits convective mixing, such that pollutant concentrations can build up within the CAP when pollutant sources are present. In the western United States, wintertime CAPs often persist for days or weeks. Atmospheric models do not adequately capture the strength and evolution of CAPs. This is in part due to the limited availability of data quantifying the local turbulence during the formation, maintenance, and destruction of persistent CAPs. This paper presents observational data to quantify the turbulent mixing during two CAP episodes in Utah's Salt Lake Valley during February of 2004. Particulate matter (PM) concentration data and turbulence measurements for CAP and non-CAP time periods indicate that two distinct types of mixing scenarios occur depending on whether the CAP is dry or cloudy. Where cloudy, CAPs have enhanced vertical mixing due to top-down convection from the cloud layer. A comparison between the heat and momentum fluxes during 5 days of a dry CAP episode in February to those of an equivalent 5 day time period in March with no CAP indicates that the average turbulent kinetic energy during the CAP was suppressed by approximately 80%.