A mass of polluted air in and above a city or industrial complex which is prevented from rising by the presence of an inversion above it. See Victor et al. (2004) Annal. NY Acad. Scis 1023. Insolation responds to pollution domes—Tomalty and Brazel (2000) Procs Urb. Envs, Conf. AMS, Davis, record inner-city values as 15% lower than outside values. Winds may elongate the dome into a pollution plume; see Nemecek et al. (1995) Int. J. Rock Mech. &c. 32, 7 on pollution plume containment. The term has been extended to describe light pollution domes.