Sensitivity Analysis of a Distributed Parameter System with Application to the Atmospheric Diffusion Equation

Abstract A sensitivity analysis is performed on a distributed parameter system describing the pollutants diffusion in the atmosphere. A class of parameters considered is the parameters that vary spatially, i.e., those which depend on the independent variable of the system. The sensitivity due to the spatially-varying parameters in the atmospheric diffusion equation is determined by using the variational approach. The results of the analysis identify the effects of the spatially-varying parameters influencing the spread of pollutants in the concentration field, and the variational approach is proved to have wide applicability to the sensitivity analysis of distributed parameter systems.