With cleaner air higher up what is the average height of human caused pollution?

Goes searching, there’s not much about particle matter vs height in air….

PM2.5 particles in the air
https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/for-community/environmental-information/air-quality/pm25-particles-in-the-air

Ambient (outdoor) air pollution
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health

Particulate Matter (PM) Basics
https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/particulate-matter-pm-basics

Particulate air pollution is the single greatest threat to human health globally.
https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/pollution-facts/

The Ryugyong Hotel posted by mollwollfumble clearly shows a pollution layer, the hotel is 330-metres high, the pollution layer seems around 200 meters probably held there by an inversion layer.

Inversion (meteorology)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_(meteorology)

In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. Normally, air temperature decreases with an increase in altitude, but during an inversion warmer air is held above cooler air.

An inversion traps air pollution, such as smog, close to the ground. An inversion can also suppress convection by acting as a “cap”. If this cap is broken for any of several reasons, convection of any moisture present can then erupt into violent thunderstorms. Temperature inversion can notoriously result in freezing rain in cold climates.

some of the highest would be space junk, no shortage of that, but you’re more thinking of something that might be inhaled, or cause haze and reduce the clarity of your visions

transition said:

some of the highest would be space junk, no shortage of that, but you’re more thinking of something that might be inhaled, or cause haze and reduce the clarity of your visions

Yes, haze height. well Ive found it.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Mean-height-of-the-inversion-base-and-top-m-according-to-the-month-of-the-year-during_fig3_252430247

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2016.00070/full

so around 1200 m to 1500 m

Looks like they will need a higher building now.

:)

Its a difficult question I think has the inversion layers vary, and when there’s no inversion layer it could be any figure.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Its a difficult question I think has the inversion layers vary, and when there’s no inversion layer it could be any figure.

One would need to average all the inversion layers (1200m -1500m), then average the Particulate Matter height across all the non inversion areas ( ? ), then average both. ?

You could always go as high as the ozone layer.

I tbought this was going to be about the increased human height causing more pollution

Tau.Neutrino said:

With cleaner air higher up what is the average height of human caused pollution?

Goes searching, there’s not much about particle matter vs height in air….

PM2.5 particles in the air
https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/for-community/environmental-information/air-quality/pm25-particles-in-the-air

Ambient (outdoor) air pollution
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health

Particulate Matter (PM) Basics
https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/particulate-matter-pm-basics

Particulate air pollution is the single greatest threat to human health globally.
https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/pollution-facts/

> You could always go as high as the ozone layer.

Yes.

As part of my work in CSIRO, I’ve done some work on the penetration of pollution up into the atmosphere, as well as mechanisms by which pollution is removed from the atmosphere.

I’ll start by debunking “inversion layer”. This is a relatively rare phenomenon that forms on only some locations for some periods of time. It occurs when a layer of stable air sits over the top of some neutrally stable (slightly turbulent) air. Pollution rises much more rapidly through the turbulent air than through the stable air, which under rare conditions traps pollution at lower levels causing severe pollution problems for some cities. But it’s temporary, lasting two to three weeks at worst.

Next step from that is to introduce you to the concept of the troposphere. The troposphere starts at the Earth’s surface and extends 8 to 14.5 kilometers high. The concentration of pollution decreases exponentially with distance up in the troposphere. With the lightest gases, including hydrogen and methane, the concentration increrases with height through the troposphere. With heavier gases such as CO2 and CFCs, the concentration decreases only very slowly with height. With the smallest aeroisols, soot from combustion, very little reaches to the top of the troposphere. For larger aerosols they don’t get to the top unless …

Once a pollutant manages to get itself injected into the stratosphere, it sometimes stays there a long time, but sometimes not. Injection methods include atomic bombs and volcanoes. Aerosols settle out.

… a key feature, one could even say a defining feature, of the stratosphere is the presence of cosmic rays from the Sun. These cosmic rays break down atmospheric pollutants at different rates.

To be continued (and to include the difference between washout and rainout).

Still to be continued.