ARL News

Dispersion studies in New York City

 

May 9, 2005

Three divisions of the Air Resources Laboratory will be working with the Department of Homeland Security in the upcoming Urban Dispersion Program (UDP) tracer field experiment to be conducted in New York City in August. The UDP is designed to test and refine urban transport and dispersion models that can be applied directly to Manhattan’s unique environment. The goal is to provide the NYC Office of Emergency Management with state of the science tools needed to respond quickly and efficiently to accidents or attacks involving toxic airborne materials. The Field Research Division (Idaho Falls) will field a broad array of tracer release and detection equipment, including fast response tracer analyzers to help develop methods to determine non-linear doses to which people could be exposed. The Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (Oak Ridge) will be leading the deployment of roof-top meteorological equipment, along similar lines to the DCNet deployment in Washington, DC. The Atmospheric Sciences Modeling Divison (Research Triangle Park) will be conducting physical and advanced computational modeling studies. Funding for the program is primarily provided by DHS, but there are significant DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) and EPA contributions.

Contact information: Kirk L. Clawson
Phone: (208) 526-2742
e-mail: kirk.clawson@noaa.gov