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Article: Quantifying Precipitation Suppression Due to Air Pollution
- Article from:
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
- Article date:
- July 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Meteorological Society Jul 2004. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ABSTRACT
Urban air pollution and industrial air pollution have been shown qualitatively to suppress rain and snow. Here, precipitation losses over topographical barriers downwind of major coastal urban areas in California and in the land of Israel that amount to 15%-25% of the annual precipitation are quantified. The suppression occurs mainly in the relatively shallow orographic clouds within the cold air mass of cyclones. The suppression that occurs over the upslope side is coupled with similar percentage enhancement on the much drier downslope side of the hills. The evidence includes significant decreasing trends of the ratio of hill to coast precipitation during the twentieth century in ...