Meteorological potential of air pollution

Air stagnation has been observed as a common meteorological condition associated with many severe air pollution episodes. Using circulation data from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis project and daily rainfall data from Climate Prediction Center, a fifty-one year (1948-1998) climatology of air stagnation condition was developed for the conterminous United States, and the results were published in the NOAA Atlas series in April of 1999.

This paper is to introduce major features of the Atlas, and to update the calculation for 1999. Using NCEP's Eta model forecast product, development from a research result to an operational present product has been made to enable real-time monitoring of air stagnation, a meteorological potential of air pollution, over the United States.