Entrainment of dispersed impurities into the atmosphere by a rising thermal

The ascent of a dusty turbulent thermal in a nonuniform compressible atmosphere is numerically investigated. The dispersed phase is described in the one-velocity and one-temperature approximation. A comparative calculation of the entrainment of active and passive impurities into the stratosphere is made, the vertical aerosol density distribution in the hanging cloud is obtained, and the maximum amount of active impurity that can be carried beyond the tropopause by a thermal of given energy is determined. The ascent of a thermal formed in an air blast is contrasted with that of a thermal formed in a surface blast, and the results of the calculations are compared with previously published data.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 123–130, January–February, 1990.