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RaeAnne Bollinger Geography 1000. AIR QUALITY. INVERSIONS IN UTAH. During the winter, Utah is among the top 25 worst cities in the U.S. Current air pollution estimates that lives are shortened by 2 years! Compare this pollution to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day!. What is pollution?.
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RaeAnne Bollinger Geography 1000 AIR QUALITY
INVERSIONS IN UTAH • During the winter, Utah is among the top 25 worst cities in the U.S. • Current air pollution estimates that lives are shortened by 2 years! • Compare this pollution to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day!
What is pollution? • Small & Coarse particles • Ozone • Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur • Toxic metals such as mercury and lead.
TYPES OF POLLUTION • Primary pollution- contaminates released directly into the air • Secondary Pollution- form due to chemical reactions or other processes in the atmoshere.
Primary Pollution Examples -Particles -Sulfur Compounds -Nitrogen Compounds -Carbon Oxides -Hydrocarbons
Secondary Pollution Example • Photochemical Smog -Gases reacting to ultraviolet radiation in strong sunlight.
Pollutants • Semi Trucks • Buses • Automobiles • Refineries • Coal fired power plants.
NATURAL POLLUTANTS SALT VOLCANIC ASH SMOKE DUST PARTICLES
Warm Weather Pollution • Large amounts of urban pollution cause the most common air alert because of the photo-chemical process. • Humans add oxides to the air which sunlight reacts to and produces ozone near the ground.
Cold Weather Pollution • Temperature inversions cause the most serious air conditions. • Inversions occur when the surface air is cooler than the air above. • With cold air below and warm above, surface air does not have any reason to rise and clear out local ground-level air pollution.
Ozone is corrosive and noxious and we experience this when ground-level ozone is present. • Our goal is to keep ozone up in the atmosphere where it can do its job.
Humans need to avoid producing unnecessary ground-level ozone and protect the atmospheric ozone. • International agreements have banned production of CFC Chemicals that damage the ozone.
References • home.howstuffworks.com • en.wikipedia.org • www.huffingtonpost.com • www.nytimes.com • radiowest.kuer.org • www.exploreutah.com • http://r4r.ca/en/theme/ozone-day-2013 • www.weatherquestions.com • cwanamaker.hubpages.com • http://www.hdwallpapersinn.com/ocean-waves-wallpapers.html • www.egu.eu • www.huffingtonpost.com • www.businessinsider.com • www.apis.ac.uk • nptel.iitm.ac.in • www.uphe.org • www.utahfoundation.org • McKnight’s Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation 10th Edition