The value of on-site sodars versus nearest radiosonde soundings in regional emergency response modeling

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6996236

Baskett, R L; Nasstrom, J S ^[1]; Lange, R ^[2]

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1. EG and G Energy Measurements, Inc., Pleasanton, CA (USA)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) provides real-time emergency response support for accidental radiological releases to the atmosphere at Department of Defense and Energy facilities throughout the country. ARAC uses diagnostic three-dimensional dispersion modeling as its primary emergency response tool. The regional (20--200 km) modeling system is built around the MATHEW (Mass-Adusted THrEe-dimensional Wind field) and ADPIC (Atmospheric Dispersion Particle-In-Cell) models. It is essential for ARAC to know the accuracy and transferability of the MATHEW/ADPIC models to a wide variety of settings and meteorological conditions. Consequently, the models have been evaluated against numerous tracer studies over the last decade. This paper provides some recent case studies of the model performance with a special focus on the wind input data. Real-time model initialization depends on readily available surface wind and upper air observations. Surface airways observations as well as rawinsonde soundings from civilian and military airports throughout the country provide the basic wind inputs for ARAC's models. ARAC receives and decodes these observations from the Air Force Global Weather center using extensive automated software at the LLNL ARAC Center. All ARAC-supported sites have at least hourly surface wind observations on-site. However, the standard twice-daily rawinsonde locations are frequently outside the modeling domain and may be up to 12 hours old, depending on the time of the calculation. 9 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: EG and G Energy Measurements, Inc., Pleasanton, CA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP
• DOE Contract Number: AC08-88NV10617; W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6996236
• Report Number(s): EGG-10617-4101; UCRL-JC--103433; CONF-900676--1; ON: DE90008956
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540130* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
ACCIDENTS
ACOUSTIC DETECTION
ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENTS
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
COMPLEX TERRAIN
DETECTION
DIABLO CANYON-1 REACTOR
EMERGENCY PLANS
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PLUMES
POWER REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIO-RELEASE ANALYSIS
REACTORS
REMOTE SENSING
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR FLUORIDES
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
VARIATIONS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
WIND