ESPM 15 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: American Lung Association, Cool Air, Sea Breeze

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Environmental Science, Policy, And Management
• Course: ESPM 15
• Professor: Goldstein Allen

Document Summary

Tropospheric air pollution: photochemical air pollution forms when primary pollutants (voc, nox) react under uv radiation from the sun and form secondary pollutants (such as pm and ozone. Primary pollutants react under inversion layers to form secondary pollutants. This smog is a type of pollution that is prominent around urban and industrial areas. This is because they form under surface inversion layers, and inversion layers are most prominent on winter nights (when the earth cools and radiates heat). Secondary air pollution is most prominent in hot, stagnant summer days because this kind of pollution forms when primary pollutants react with the sun. Thus, the sun is necessary to feed the formation of this pollution. Thus, there is an increased photochemical interaction potential from the long solar day: the major sources of vocs are primarily biogenic (natural) from plants-particularly forests, excepted in polluted urban areas (anthropogenic). The main source of nox is combustion or fertilizer (more than 95% from this).