Author(s)

F. Desiato

Abstract

One of the main elements to be included in the environmental impact evaluation of pollutant releases into the atmosphere, is the understanding of the climatological characteristics of the circulation over the area surrounding the emission site, i.e., the space and time depiction of the advection field driving the pollutant. A wind field classification would enable to describe the prevailing two-dimensional circulation patterns over a certain area, to assess their frequency, and to associate each local-scale situation to one pre-identified class. For this purpose, a valuable tool is represented by cluster analysis. A method of automatic wind field classification based on cluster analysis has been developed and applied to three winter months of wind observations at eight

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