Question

what are dust domes?

Answer 1

Dome of air that surrounds a city created from the urban heat island effect that traps pollutants like particulate matter

Answer 2

ANSWER:

Dust domes are a meteorological occurrence where in soot, chemical emissions and dust gets trapped or confined in the air up the urban spaces. This trapping is due to circulation of the local air.  

EXPLANATION:

  Calm surface winds are pulled toward urban centers, they later rise up the city and drop away slowly on the boundary of the developed core. This cycle is often because of smog via photo-chemical reactions which take place when the pollutants’ strong concentrations in this cycle are open to solar radiation.

   This is one consequence of the urban heat island (UHI) (a metropolitan or an urban area that is considerably smaller than rural areas.Pollutants concentrate in a dust dome since convection elevate pollutants into the air, where they stay due to stable air masses generated by the UHI. The UHI that causes a city to heat up, caps dust and other particulates at a lower level in the atmosphere.

  If there is no strong wind, then this dome which is formed stays intact and produces that heated up air within the UHI. If the wind blows strongly, then this dome is blown downwind making it to move outside the city .