This page should be read in conjunction with How Plume Plotter Works. It provides more details specific to the Ringaskiddy version of Plume Plotter.
Building measurements are taken from the building plans included in the EIS [1].
This image shows the layout of the stack and buildings modelled. (North is at the top; numbers indicate the height of stacks and buildings; lighter shades of pink are used for higher buildings.)
All of these are taken from [1]:
For consistency with other incinerators, a single value is used for albedo, Bowen ratio, and roughness length, unlike the complicated values used in [1]:
The emission rates of pollutants are taken from Tables A8.2 and A8.91b of [1]. We use the long-term maximum emission concentrations and the maximum flow rate, for consistency with other incinerators modelled. Unlike [1], we never use "abnormal" emission concentrations because these are only allowed during abnormal operation, which is rare. The emission rates are:
| Pollutant | Emission rate per second |
|---|---|
| Oxides of nitrogen | 7.89 g |
| Particulates PM10 | 400 mg |
| Sulphur dioxide | 2 g |
| TOC | 400 mg |
| Carbon monoxide | 2 g |
| Hydrogen chloride | 400 mg |
| Hydrogen flouride | 40 mg |
| Cadmium and thallium | 2 mg |
| Mercury | 2 mg |
| Other metals | 20 mg |
| Dioxins and furans | 4 ng |
The background levels of pollutants are taken from the "Baseline Monitoring" row of Table A8.23 of [1]. These are:
| Pollutant | Background concentration per m3 |
|---|---|
| Oxides of nitrogen | 9 μg |
| Particulates PM10 | 20 μg |
| Sulphur dioxide | 9 μg |
| TOC | 1 μg |
| Carbon monoxide | N/A |
| Hydrogen chloride | 1.2 μg |
| Hydrogen flouride | 50 ng |
| Cadmium and thallium | 1 ng |
| Mercury | 1 ng |
| Other metals | 10 ng |
| Dioxins and furans | 1.3 fg |
For consistency with other incinerators, the background concentration of nitrogen oxides shown here is actually the background concentration of nitrogen dioxide only.
Weather data is taken from METAR reports from a local airport: Cork.
For historical plots, official weather data from the Roches Point weather station is used, with cloud cover from Cork Airport.
Upper air data is the latest reported by the Valentia upper air station.