A technique for plume visualization in power plant siting.

If the shape of the plume from a proposed power plant and its geometry with respect to surrounding terrain can be visualized accurately, several site planning tasks can be accomplished. A computer graphics technique that avoids many drawbacks of more conventional plume visualization methods is described. A mathematical model of the proposed power plant, its effluent plume, and the terrain at each candidate site is created. Through the use of a conceptual camera technique, the plume can be viewed from a number of vantage points. (7 diagrams)