The convective boundary layer height and its effect on pollutant concentration

Abstract

Air pollutants are trapped within a very thin layer of the atmosphere called the boundary layer. A monostatic, biaxial, vertically-pointing Mie Scattering 532 nm Nd:YAG with 20 Hz repetition rate lidar was used to observe the development of the daytime BL over Metro Manila in summer of 1999. It was observed that the daytime BL developed with a more or less general pattern: its height increased slowly in the early morning, fast from mid-morning, much more slowly from noontime, then remained more or less constant or lowered a little from mid-afternoon until just before sundown. Air pollutant concentrations were seen to be closely related to the height of the BL.