Impurity transfer in the case of convection over a thermally inhomogeneous horizontal surface

Abstract

Stationary disturbances introduced by convection (thermal circulations) over a thermally inhomogeneous horizontal surface into the background vertical distribution of a passive impurity have been investigated analytically in the linear approximation. It has been found that in the case of a strong stable stratification where vertical motions are suppressed and thermal circulations are "pressed" against the surface impurity-concentration, disturbances produced by them can, nonetheless, penetrate to high levels of the order of horizontal scales of thermal inhomogeneities. Even a very weak convection which has a slight effect on heat transfer and on the background temperature profile, can substantially influence the transfer of a slowly diffused impurity. It is noteworthy that the results in certain situations can be highly sensitive to the details of the boundary conditions at the lower boundary.