An Inert Gas Tracer System for Monitoring the Real-Time History of a Diffusing Plume or Puff

Abstract

A brief description is given of the Hanford inert gas tracer system employed in atmospheric diffusion studies. Among the advantages of the system are the detailed histories of concentration generated simultaneously at 64 field positions, and the ability to disperse instantaneous point sources (puffs) as well as longer duration releases (plumes). Concentration measurements are made to a distance of 800 m from the source. Sample data resulting from a puff and a plume release are given. A minor amount of data analysis follows. Mean effective transport height resulting from the ground-level puff release are found to increase from 0.9 m at 200 m from the source to 1.7 m at a distance of 800 m. For the continuous plume, corresponding effective transport heights from a release 1 m above the surface were found to be 1.2 m and 1.6 m. For the puff, the ratio of σz to σv was found to be 3.9 at 200 m from the source, and 4.2 at 800 m.