Photogrammetric and Photometric Investigation of a Smoke Plume Viewed from Space

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Abstract
Detailed analyses of an Apollo 6 stereographic photograph of a smoke plume which originated in southern Arizona and crossed over into Mexico are presented to illustrate how high-resolution photography can aid meteorologists in evaluating specific air pollution events. Photogrammetric analysis of the visible smoke plume revealed the plume was 8.06 mi long and attained a maximum width of 4000 ft, 3.0 mi from the 570-ft chimney emitting the effluent. Stereometric analysis showed that the visible top of the plume rose nearly 2400 ft above stack top, attaining 90% of this total rise 1.75 mi downwind from the source. Photometric analysis of the plume revealed a field of plume optical density that portrayed leptokurtic and bimodal distributions rather than a true Gaussian distribution. A horizontal eddy diffusivity of about 6.5 × 105 cm2 sec−1 and a vertical eddy diffusivity of 2.3 × 105 cm2 sec−1 were determined from the plume dimensions. Neutron activation analysis of plume samples revealed the elemental composition of the smoke to be copper, arsenic, selenium, indium, antimony, with trace amounts of vanadium and scandium.

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