Weekly 6 Assignment
Karen Smith
1. Describe how the use of a tall smoke stack might improve air quality near a large industrial facility.
Smoke stacks that are higher can provide better air quality than those that are shorter. Night time can cause the entrapment of pollution due to temperature inversions. Pollution that comes from shorter stacks have a higher level to rise to, so become trapped in the lower atmosphere easier. This makes the pollutants spread out in a horizontal fashion. Tall smoke stacks allow for the escaping particles to rise above the level of the nightly inversion (Ahrens, 2014). One problem with taller smoke stacks is that they might contribute to acid rain. This is because they permit the pollutants to be pushed greater distances downwind.

2. How can topography contribute to pollution in a city or region?
Topography does have a tremendous impact on pollution. Cities built in valleys will find trapped particles in the air due to inversion, especially during the night. The cold layers make a cap for the warmer layers that lie beneath, essentially keeping pollution at ground level. Hillsides become barriers that prevent the winds from moving the air and dispersing the particles suspended in it. This creates a pocket of polluted air that becomes stagnant (Ahrens, 2014).

3. From where do hurricanes derive their energy? What factors tend to weaken hurricanes? Would you expect a hurricane to weaken more quickly if it moved over land or over cooler water?
Hurricanes get their energy when heat is transferred from the surface of the ocean. Thunderstorms form in clusters around an area of pressure that has dropped to a lower level. Warm water adds to the fuel and helps the formation of a hurricane. Warmer air pulled from the warmer waters moves over colder water surfaces and causes the slowing and decaying of the hurricane. Wind shear that rises will also affect a brewing hurricane and will hinder its development. When wind shear rises it can interfere with the development of a hurricane. Hurricanes begin to weaken as they make landfall. The terrain can interfere with the developing winds causing them to break up and slow down. Land will also help pull moisture from the storm which will increase the decay process even further (Ahrens, 2014).

4. Where is the Bermuda high located during the summer and fall? How might the path of a hurricane, moving toward the west from Africa, be affected by the Bermuda High as the