Re: Killer Trees -Air Pollution thread

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

>In a message dated 4/26/00 8:05:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>dkosloff@ncweb.com writes:

>Trees don't just introduce hydrocarbons into the air but the mix of
>hydrocarbons and sunlight in the area of the Great Smoky mountains lead to
>the formation of a host of photochemical smog constituents --hence the
smoky
>appearing air resulting from the soup of pollutants formed [particulates,
>oxides of nitrogen, etc.] in the Smokies.

There is a vital ingredient omitted from this description - the constant,
very high humidity that is characteristic of the climate in the southeast.
It is that humidity that allows that tree emissions to have that "smoky"
effect. Otherwise, every forested area on earth would have a smoky
appearance, which, of course, is not the case.
============================
Bob Flood
Dosimetry Group Leader
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
bflood@slac.stanford.edu


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