Air Cleaner

You can email me at millertrader@gmail.com
The blog owner T E Miller (Swayseeker), known as Eddie will not accept liability or responsibility for any problems arising from the use of this blog and its calculations. I try to provide good calculations and analysis, but cannot guarantee that there are no mistakes. Here is a site that tells you how to build your own solar air heater:
 http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PopCanVsScreen/PopCanVsScreen.htm
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Have been doing the following calculations: Los Angeles (latitude 34.05 deg N) has a maximum (always facing the sun) 11.2 kWh of solar energy per square metre on a good day on 1 July. On a horizontal surface it has 8.8 kWh of solar energy per sq metre per day (assuming a sunny day). It takes about 1.2 kJ of solar energy to heat 1 cubic metre of air 1 deg C (volumetric heat capacity of air is about 1.2 kJ per cubic metre per 1 deg C temperature rise - depends on pressure, etc). I have done this for the first day of each month and give a graph of how much air could be heated 5 deg C by one sq metre of horizontal surface by solar energy in one day. These are theoretical values and solar air heaters are certainly not 100% efficient, but the volume is enormous. I have been promoting this idea in Africa, China, US, India, via the Internet, etc, and am hoping it will have a good effect on the world.
If people generally knew the following facts about air the world might have been been different: 
Air is very little affected by radiation (sun shining through it, radiation from fires, heaters and so on). But air is heated by coming into contact with hot surfaces (casing of heaters, hot tar and so on) and the hot ground heats air and causes upward movement of this less dense air on a grand scale. The ground only has fairly superficial contact with air. On the other hand a solar air heater (a sort of greenhouse with a solar absorber to heat up in the sun and large hot surfaces to make contact with the air) is a different matter - it will heat air efficiently and a solar air heater on each rooftop could get warm air rising and out of polluted cities and also cause more rain to fall when vapour condenses in the cooler regions. 
People make their own solar air heaters and I believe India and China, with their pollution, could get polluted air moving out of their cities with them. It takes about 1.2 kilojoules of solar energy to heat 1 cubic metre of air by 1 degree C and every second 0.8 kilojoules of solar energy can easily fall on every square metre of some locations at noon.
The graph shows the number of cubic metres of air in a day that can theoretically be heated 5 deg C, using solar energy falling on a square metre of horizontal surface in Los Angeles. The x-axis shows 1 July, 1 Aug, etc.
Wikipedia says that rain dust (alkaline rainfall deposits, caused by particles from Saharan dust, etc) could help combat acid rain. 
An idea of mine: If one had huge solar air heaters and put Saharan dust in them, the hot air could carry the alkaline dust into sulfur dioxide-polluted air and neutralize acidity.
Wikipedia also says," Acid rain does not directly affect human health. The acid in the rainwater is too dilute to have direct adverse effects. However, the particulates responsible for acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) do have an adverse effect. Increased amounts of fine particulate matter in the air do contribute to heart and lung problems including asthma and bronchitis." 
Therefore the rain itself is good, because sulfur oxides, etc, are washed out, improving health prospects (reducing asthma, etc). Rain also washes out ozone, so if one could neutralize rain and get more rain, that would generally be good.
Graph below: The number of cubic metres of air in a day that can theoretically be heated 5 deg C, using solar energy falling on a square metre of horizontal surface in Los Angeles. The x-axis shows 1 July, 1 Aug, etc.

Air land temperatures and sea temperatures and rain

Looking at sea temperatures near Jeddah, I see they are very high (about 30 deg C). So why is there not rain? Literature says that it is because the expanse of the Red Sea is too small for moisture to have been picked up by air, but it also could partly be because the waves are fairly low and generally calm conditions prevail, so there is not much evaporation from spray. I have noticed that when the sea temperature is higher than the land temperature there is sometimes a dramatic increase in rainfall - see graph. The graph shows the sea and land temperatures and (although it in the wrong units of mm) shows the rainfall in mm (bottom curve).The graph starts out with sea temperature being greater than land temperature (and rainfall is relatively high). Later the land temperature is higher than the sea temperature (and rainfall is close to zero). Later the sea temperature becomes higher than the land temperature and the rainfall increases dramatically. Of course if sea temperatures are lower than land temperatures, the air heats up on going to land areas and relative humidity decreases, making rain less likely. 
For Los Angeles, etc, it would be good to investigate this: If one had shallow pools of seawater with dark bottoms to absorb solar radiation one could increase water temperatures to more than land temperatures. The second graph is for Cape Town. The upper two curves show sea and land temperatures. The lowest curve (generally) shows the rainfall in mm. The land temperature starts out being higher than the sea temperature and rainfall is low. Then the land temperature is less than the sea temperature and rainfall is high, etc. Third graph is for Los Angeles Basin. Usually high land air temperatures bring in air from the sea. But if land is hotter than sea air then the relative humidity of the sea air will decrease on being heated by the land. Here is a graph for Los Angeles basin. It uses mean sea temperatures and land air temperatures. The rainfall is in inches and the temps are in deg C (not really right to do T and rainfall on one axis, but still), The sea is hotter than land air T up to month 4. Then sea temp is cooler than land air temp up to month 9, then sea is warmer for 10, 11 and 12. Do not know why it works so dramatically in some cases, but it seems generally higher sea temps than land air temps mean much more rain.
GRAPHS:
Jeddah graph below: The graph shows the sea and land temperatures and (although it in the wrong units of mm) shows the rainfall in mm (bottom curve).The graph starts out with sea temperature being greater than land temperature (and rainfall is relatively high). Later the land temperature is higher than the sea temperature (and rainfall is close to zero). Later the sea temperature becomes higher than the land temperature and the rainfall increases dramatically. 

The second graph (below) is for Cape Town. The upper two curves show sea and land temperatures. The lowest curve (generally) shows the rainfall in mm. The land temperature starts out being higher than the sea temperature and rainfall is low. Then the land temperature is less than the sea temperature and rainfall is high, etc. 

Here is a graph for Los Angeles basin (below). It uses mean sea temperatures and land air temperatures. The rainfall is in inches and the temps are in deg C (not really right to do T and rainfall on one axis, but still), The sea is hotter than land air T up to month 4. Then sea temp is cooler than land air temp up to month 10, then sea is warmer after 10, 11 and 12. I have an idea of how it might work - hotter humid air blowing onto land would enhance rain chances.

Graphs by me (blog owner)