The MATS experiments - mesoscale atmospheric transport studies at the Savannah River Site

Journal Article · · Nuclear Safety; (United States)

OSTI ID:7049040

Weber, A H; Berman, S; Kurzeja, R J; Addis, R P ^[1]

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1. Savannah River Lab., Aiken, SC (United States)

An overview of the Mesoscale Atmospheric Transport Studies (MATS) program is presented. MATS was an experimental program to create a data base for short-term atmospheric releases to study mesoscale atmospheric dispersion over gently rolling terrain at the Savannah River Site (SRS). Thirty-one experiments were performed over a 3-year period under daytime convective conditions using 15-minute releases of sulfur hexafluoride (SF[sub 6]) tracer. Dispersion was typically measured along an arc of stationary samplers approximately 30 km downwind. Four nighttime experiments were performed with SF[sub 6] releases, and sampling was carried on for a few hours with a mobile sampling laboratory. The mobile laboratory repeatedly traversed the plume while recording tracer concentration, time, and location. Supporting meteorological data for the MATS experiments included wind and temperature measurements from an integrated meteorological tower network and computer system. The tower network consists of eight instrumented, 61-m towers located near each of SRS's major facilities and a 304-m television tower located about 16 km WNW from the SRS administrative area. Low-level soundings obtained from on-site launches of mini-rawinsondes and Airsondes provided additional date on the vertical structure of the boundary layer for 11 of the experiments. Soundings were also obtained for Athens, GA., and Charleston, SC, from the National Climatic Data Center. The MATS data set is available for use by diffusion researchers and modelers. Two experiments were examined in detail and compared with predictions from a simple Gaussian model to help demonstrate the usefulness of the data. These cases show that the downwind locations of tracer material were predicted adequately if uniform winds at release level were assumed but that the magnitude of the concentration was overpredicted by factors of 2.5 and 10. 21 refs., 14 figs., 4 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 7049040
• Journal Information: Nuclear Safety; (United States), Journal Name: Nuclear Safety; (United States) Vol. 33:1; ISSN 0029-5604; ISSN NUSAAZ
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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