Appliction of ALPHA-1 to plume model validation and development

The Electric Power Research Institute is conducting an extensive program to validate and develop computational models for predicting the near-surface distribution of emissions from coal-burning power-generation stations. As part of the plume model validation and development (PMV and D) project, an extensive data base is being collected on the downwind distribution of emissions for a variety of meteorological conditions and terrains. The first data collected were at the Kincaid, Illinois, generating station - a site characterized by surrounding flat terrain. A second series of observations was made at the Bull Run, Tennessee station characterized by moderately complex terrain, and future studies are being planned at a complex terrain site. As part of the experimental program, tracer gas releases and sampling were used to evaluate distributions at the surface level while lidar techniques were used to evaluate vertical plume distributions. As many as three lidar systems were used to observe effluents normally emitted by coal-burning power plants. Two ground-based systems were used to measure SO/sub 2/ and particulates 1 to 5 km downwind of the source, and an airborne lidar to measure particulate distributions 5 to 20 km downwind. The airborne unit was the airborne lidar plume and haze analyzer (ALPHA-1)more » constructed and operated for EPRI by SRI (Uthe et al, 1980). This paper pertains to ALPHA-1 observations made during the data collection program at Kincaid. Data examples are presented that illustrate the wide variety of plume and boundary-layer conditions that occurred during the data collection periods.« less