Book contents
- Air Pollution
- Air Pollution
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Main Notations
- 1 Brief History of Air Pollution
- 2 Emissions of Air Pollutants and Emission Control Technologies
- 3 Meteorology: General Circulation
- 4 Air Pollution Meteorology
- 5 Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Visibility
- 6 Atmospheric Dispersion
- 7 The Stratospheric Ozone Layer
- 8 Gaseous Pollutants
- 9 Atmospheric Particles
- 10 Clouds and Acid Rain
- 11 Transfer of Pollutants between the Atmosphere and Surfaces
- 12 Health Effects
- 13 Environmental Impacts
- 14 Climate Change and Air Pollution
- 15 Regulations and Public Policies
- Index
- References
5 - Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Visibility
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2019
- Air Pollution
- Air Pollution
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Main Notations
- 1 Brief History of Air Pollution
- 2 Emissions of Air Pollutants and Emission Control Technologies
- 3 Meteorology: General Circulation
- 4 Air Pollution Meteorology
- 5 Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Visibility
- 6 Atmospheric Dispersion
- 7 The Stratospheric Ozone Layer
- 8 Gaseous Pollutants
- 9 Atmospheric Particles
- 10 Clouds and Acid Rain
- 11 Transfer of Pollutants between the Atmosphere and Surfaces
- 12 Health Effects
- 13 Environmental Impacts
- 14 Climate Change and Air Pollution
- 15 Regulations and Public Policies
- Index
- References
Summary
Solar radiation is essential to life on Earth and is one of the major factors governing the atmospheric general circulation. Furthermore, solar radiation plays a major role in air pollution, since it leads to photochemical reactions when its radiative energy breaks apart some molecules. Then, these photochemical reactions initiate chemical and physico-chemical transformations that contribute to various forms of air pollution, including ozone, fine particles, and acid rain. In addition, the Earth emits radiation, which may be partially absorbed by anthropogenic greenhouse gases and some fraction of particulate matter, thereby leading to climate change. Finally, understanding how radiation is transferred through the atmosphere is useful to estimate the effect of air pollution on atmospheric visibility. This chapter describes first the radiative transfer processes in the atmosphere, i.e., solar radiation, its absorption by oxygen and ozone in the stratosphere, and its scattering by gases and particles.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Air PollutionConcepts, Theory, and Applications, pp. 76 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019