Environmental impact of Kuwaiti oil fires : a statistical study of smoke distribution using a plume trajectory model

Abstract EN

In order to assess the impact on air quality due to the burning oil wells, a plume trajectory model was used.

A model initially developed at the Air Resources Laboratories at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in USA was modified to work as a tool to determine the movements of air parcel carrying pollution from Kuwait oil fields to the residential areas of the Arabian Gulf.

Using the processed six hourly meteorological data, the smoke trajectories were drawn from the origin of Kuwaiti oil fires for the period covering March to October, 1991.

In order to estimate the extent by which the trajectories were passing over an area, the concept of frequency distribution was used.

The percentage of frequency of occurrence of trajectories passing through different areas were computed and contour maps were prepared.

These trajectory traverse maps were prepared for each month during March to October 1991.

Monthly distribution of trajectory traverses show that the percentage of occurrences of tra jectories passing through different areas changes with the changes in meteorolo¬gical conditions.

It was observed that the region between south of Kuwait and Safaniya was adversely and quite frequently affected by the smoke trajectories during March, April, and May, 1991.