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Article: Air Plume and Chemical Analysis
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- Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, andSecurity
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Air Plume and Chemical Analysis
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BRIAN HOYLE
An air plume is a layer of warm air that immediately surrounds a person's body. It has also been referred to as a human thermal plume.
The skin's surface temperature is typically 33
°
Celsius, which is approximately nine degrees warmer than the surrounding air at a typical room temperature. The temperature difference causes heat to be lost from the entire surface of the skin to the surrounding air.
Because warm air rises, the plume rises up the body and flows off the top of the head and shoulders, instead of radiating outward to the surrounding air from all parts of the body. As the air moves up and away from a person, tiny ...