Log in

The treatment of atmospheric dispersion data in the presence of noise and baseline drift

  • Published:
Boundary-Layer Meteorology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recently large quantities of data from many different field experiments have become available to facilitate the examination of various proposed models of atmospheric dispersion. However, these data sets are invariably corrupted by some form of random noise and, also, significant baseline drift is often recorded. Consequently, these problems require careful consideration and treatment before the data can be used in model testing. In many papers, the noise is simply treated by ‘thresholding’ but this is unacceptable since many valid readings are discarded. This paper examines the performance of two different noise removal methods that are more soundly based, both physically and mathematically. The first is a Wiener filter with certain modifications, and the second is a maximum entropy inversion technique. A comparison of the results of applying these methods is presented, with the emphasis on the practical treatment of the numerical and computational problems that arise. The problem of baseline drift is treated initially by applying a number of subjective fits. Subsequently the noise removal methods are applied. In general, it is found that the maximum entropy method performs better than the Wiener filter for the data sets examined here.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bryan, R. K., Bansal, M., Folkhand, W., Nave, C., and Marvin, D. A.: 1983, ‘Maximum-Entropy Calculations of the Electron Density at 4 Å Resolution ofPf1 Filamentous Bacteriophage’,Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., USA 80, 4728–4731.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryan, R. K. and Skilling, J.: 1980, ‘Deconvolution by Maximum Entropy as Illustrated by Applications to the Jet of M87’,Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. 191, 69–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatwin, P. C. and Hajian, N. T.: 1990, ‘Concentration Fluctuations in Atmospheric Dispersion’,Final Technical Report on Agreement No. 2066/62, CBDE Porton Down, Wiltshire.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatwin, P. C. and Sullivan, P. J.: 1989, ‘The Intermittency Factor of Scalars in Turbulence’,Phys. Fluids A1(4), 761–763.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davison, A. C. and Smith, R. L.: 1990, ‘Models for Exceedances over High Thresholds’,J. R. Statist. Soc. B 52(3), 393–442.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowling, D. R. and Dimotakis, P. E.: 1988,On Mixing and Structure of the Concentration Field of Turbulent Jets, AIAA/ASME/SIAM/APS. 1st National Fluid Dynamics Congress, Cincinnati, Part 2, pp. 982–988.

  • Flannery, B. P., Press, W. H., Teukolsky, S. A., and Vetterling, W. T.: 1990,Numerical Recipes, Cambridge University Press.

  • Frieden, B. R.: 1972, ‘Restoring with Maximum Likelihood and Maximum Entropy’,J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62, 511–518.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frieden, B. R. and Swindell, W.: 1976, ‘Restored Pictures of Ganymede, Moon of Jupiter’,Science 191, 1237–1241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frieden, B. R. and Wells, D. C.: 1978, ‘Restoring with Maximum Entropy III. Poisson Sources and Backgrounds’,J. Opt. Soc. Amer. 68, 93–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, D. G.: 1984, ‘Uncertainty in Air Quality Modelling’,Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 65, 27–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gull, S. E. and Daniell, G. J.: 1978, ‘Image Reconstruction from Incomplete and Noisy Data,Nature 272, 686–690.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gull, S. F. and Skilling, J.: 1983,IAU/URSI Symposium on Indirect Imaging, Sydney, Australia, Cambridge University Press, pp. 267–279.

  • Jaynes, E. T.: 1957, ‘Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics I and II’,Phys. Rev. 106, 620–630 and108, 171–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, M. C.: 1980,International Symposium on Radionuclide Imaging, IAEA-SM-247, Heidelberg, p. 128.

  • Mole, N.: 1989, ‘Estimating Statistics of Concentration Fluctuations from Measurements,Seventh Symposium on Turbulent Shear Flows, Stanford University, pp. 29.5.1–29.5.6.

  • Mole, N.: 1990, ‘Turbulent Dispersion and Statistics’,Environmetrics 1, 179–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mylne, K. R. and Mason, P. J.: 1991, ‘Concentration Fluctuation Measurements in a Dispersing Plume at a Range of up to 1000 m’,Quart. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 117, 177–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Narayan, R. and Nityananda, R.: 1986, ‘Maximum Entropy Image Reconstruction in Astronomy,Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 24, 127–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Sullivan, F.: 1986, ‘A Statistical Perspective on Ill-Posed Inverse Problems’,Statistical Science 1(4), 502–527.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papoulis, A.: 1987,Signal Analysis, McGraw Hill, Inc.

  • Shannon, C. E.: 1948, ‘A Mathematical Theory of Communication I and II’,Bell System Tech. J. 27, 379–423 and 623–656.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skilling, J. and Bryan, R. K.: 1984, ‘Maximum Entropy Image Reconstruction: General Algorithm’,Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. 211, 111–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titterington, D. M.: 1985, ‘Common Structure of Smoothing Techniques in Statistics’,International Statistic Rev. 53(2), 141–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tretter, S. A.: 1976,Introduction to Discrete-Time Signal Processing, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

  • Venkatram, A.: 1982, ‘A Framework for Evaluating Air Quality Models’,Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 24, 371–385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weil, J. C., Sykes, R. I., and Venkatram, A.: 1992, ‘Evaluating Air-Quality Models: Review and Outlook’,J. Appl. Meteorol. 31, 1121–1145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wyngaard, J. C.: 1973, ‘On Surface Layer Turbulence’, in Duane A. Haugen (ed.),Workshop on Micrometeorology, AMS.

  • Yee, E., Kosteniuk, P. R., Chandler, G. M., Biltoft, C. A., and Bowers, J. F.: 1993, ‘Statistical Characteristics of Concentration Fluctuations in Dispersing Plumes in the Atmospheric Surface Layer’,Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 65, 69–109.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lewis, D.M., Chatwin, P.C. The treatment of atmospheric dispersion data in the presence of noise and baseline drift. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 72, 53–85 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00712390

Download citation

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00712390

Keywords

Navigation