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A number of people have asked us for a simple explanation of temperature inversions and how this might affect the pollution from burning buildings.
We searched the internet and found an explanation of 'temperature inversion' by Bill Giles the BBC weatherman. Below is an extract from the article If you wish to read the full article you will find it at the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/az/alphabet27.shtml
"Inversions form in many different ways. The most common, I suppose, forms on still winter evenings when the ground, and the air near the ground, cools quickly, but, since air is a poor heat conductor, the air say 20 feet above the ground doesn't cool down very much. An inversion is formed as the air at 20 feet is much warmer than ground level so if you light a bonfire, the smoke can only rise a little way before spreading out under the temperature inversion. This inversion will only disappear when, on the following morning, the sun heats up the ground again above the temperature of the inversion.
So when you plan a bonfire in your garden this coming autumn don't just think where the wind will take the smoke but whether there is likely to be an inversion to keep the smoke trapped in a shallow layer or no inversion when the smoke can disappear into the upper atmosphere."
This explains why we have serious misgivings over the proposed plan to decontaminate buildings on the ROF site by filling them with combustible material and setting alight to it. The Bishopton area often experiences 'temperature inversions' and not only during the Winter months. The photographs below illustrate temperature inversions which have occurred on the ROF site in February and June. The low lying fog indicates that temperature inversion is present. It is understood that Bishopton was chosen as the location of the ROF because the fogs concealed the site.
Picture3 21 february 2007 8.24am Picture4 21 February 2007 8.25am
copyright: Bishopton Action Group || design and support from 3dc.org.uk via InBishopton.org.uk |
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