A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF SUTTON'S HYPOTHESIS FOR DIFFUSION FROM A CONTINUOUS POINT SOURCE

Abstract

Sutton's hypothesis for diffusion from a continuous point source has been evaluated using the data obtained during Project Prairie Grass. It is found that the hypothesis predicts the observed concentration distributions only if there are two values of Sutton's ?n?, one to characterize lateral diffusion (ny) and one to characterize vertical diffusion (nz). Statistical tests indicate that ny and nz are invariant with distance between 100 and 800 m of the source, but that the values of ny and nz appropriate for these distances exceed the values within 100 m of the source. It is also shown that neither ny nor nz can be specified by nw1, the value of n found from a power-law fit to the wind profile in the lowest 8 meters.