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Results from an acoustic sounder network study of the San Francisco Bay Area

1976; Acoustical Society of America; Volume: 60; Issue: S1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1121/1.2003268

1520-9024

P. B. Russell, Edward E. Uthe,

Coastal and Marine Dynamics

This study, begun in 1974, was expanded to a small network of three stations in 1975, with some additional data received from two sites operated by others. The measurements indicated widespread (up to 60 km inland) and frequency occurrence of a low (200–700 m) marine inversion, which was easy to detect acoustically. Records from San Jose could be usefully classified by the scheme developed in 1974 for Stanford—Menlo Park. They confirmed that the time of transition from near-surface stability to convection and the height of the inversion aloft (both as depicted by the sounder records) were equally important predictors of near-surface primary pollutant concentration. Records from Mt. Sutro (San Francisco) repeatedly showed a very intense inversion with the characteristic diurnal height variation (late afternoon minimum) revealed by a simultaneous direct-sensing study [A. Miller, Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 56, 52–55 (1975)]. Temperature profiles measured by tower, remotely piloted aircraft, and balloon at each site confirmed the inversion and convection behavior depicted by the sounder records. A 13-station network is starting operation in August 1976, to provide input data for an operational computer model of Bay Area air pollution. Preliminary results will be shown.