Abstract
An hourly wind analysis for the populated area of La Plata city (with high industrial, power station and vehicular activities) is presented and discussed. Euclidean distance and minimum covariance determinant (a robust correlation coefficient) are employed, as similarity approaches, in order to compare observed wind direction frequency patterns at two monitoring sites during 1998-2003. A preliminary assessment of two sectors, namely Sector 1 (NNW-N-NNE-NE) and Sector 2 (ENE-E-ESE), relevant for the transport of industrial air pollutants towards population exposed, is discussed taking variances into account and employing a locally weighted smoothing approach (LOESS). Both similarity approaches allowed gain insight of wind patterns. The distance approach showed good similarity between sites while the correlation approach showed an uneven picture depending on the wind direction. Most of the differences are explained in terms of the sea-land breeze effect but also differences in terrain roughness and data quality are taken into account. Winds from sectors 1 or 2 (analyzed during 1998-2009) may occur more than 50% of the time, most of the differences regarding the influence of the day and the season on these sectors are attributable to sea-land breeze phenomena. The LOESS proved to be appropriate to analyze the stability with time of both sectors and to discard possible remaining patterns; results are in accordance with studies that assess the interannual variability for different variables in La Plata river area. The robust correlation coefficient revealed, as an example, the linear character of dependence between winds from sector 2 and sulfur dioxide concentrations. Wind velocities and calms are also discussed.
Highlights
Urban areas are major sources of air pollution which is the result of processes of accumulation, dispersion, transformation and removal of contaminants
Glassmann and Mazzeo [2] made a regional study of air pollution potential in Argentina and concluded that La Plata is located in a zone with poor atmospheric self-cleansing capacity
Its influence is more pronounced during summer due to the higher temperature contrast between the land and the large water surface of the La Plata River
Summary
Urban areas are major sources of air pollution which is the result of processes of accumulation, dispersion, transformation and removal of contaminants. Pollutant emissions affecting air quality in cities have an adverse impact on human health [1]. In spite of these facts, no governmental air monitoring network is installed. In recent years several works contributed to assess different parameters characterizing air pollutants in the area [3,4,5,6,7] but references to hourly distribution of winds and sealand breeze effects have been rare. The characterization of wind direction frequency patterns associated with industrial sources is essential for describing the transporttation of air pollutants and settles the basis for a further assessing of environmental impact on human health
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