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Title: Meteorological Integration for the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System: General Guidance for BWIC Cities

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for developing systems to detect the release of aerosolized bioagents in urban environments. The system that accomplishes this, known as BioWatch, is a robust first-generation monitoring system. In conjunction with the BioWatch detection network, DHS has also developed a software tool for cities to use to assist in their response when a bioagent is detected. This tool, the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System, will eventually be deployed to all BioWatch cities to aid in the interpretation of the public health significance of indicators from the BioWatch networks. BWIC consists of a set of integrated modules, including meteorological models, that estimate the effect of a biological agent on a city’s population once it has been detected. For the meteorological models in BWIC to successfully calculate the distribution of biological material, they must have as input accurate meteorological data, and wind fields in particular. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for cities to use in identifying sources of good-quality local meteorological data that BWIC needs to function properly. This process of finding sources of local meteorological data, evaluating the data quality and gaps in coverage, and getting themore » data into BWIC, referred to as meteorological integration, is described. The good news for many cities is that meteorological measurement networks are becoming increasingly common. Most of these networks allow their data to be distributed in real time via the internet. Thus, cities will often only need to evaluate the quality of available measurements and perhaps add a modest number of stations where coverage is poor.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
901186
Report Number(s):
PNNL-16422
400904120; TRN: US200713%%234
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; BIOLOGICAL WARFARE AGENTS; DETECTION; MONITORING; METEOROLOGY; EMERGENCY PLANS; URBAN AREAS; B CODES; ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT; PUBLIC HEALTH

Citation Formats

Shaw, William J., Wang, Weiguo, Rutz, Frederick C., Chapman, Elaine G., Rishel, Jeremy P., Xie, YuLong, Seiple, Timothy E., and Allwine, K Jerry. Meteorological Integration for the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System: General Guidance for BWIC Cities. United States: N. p., 2007. Web. doi:10.2172/901186.
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Shaw, William J., Wang, Weiguo, Rutz, Frederick C., Chapman, Elaine G., Rishel, Jeremy P., Xie, YuLong, Seiple, Timothy E., & Allwine, K Jerry. Meteorological Integration for the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System: General Guidance for BWIC Cities. United States. doi:10.2172/901186.
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Shaw, William J., Wang, Weiguo, Rutz, Frederick C., Chapman, Elaine G., Rishel, Jeremy P., Xie, YuLong, Seiple, Timothy E., and Allwine, K Jerry. Fri . "Meteorological Integration for the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System: General Guidance for BWIC Cities". United States. doi:10.2172/901186. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/901186.
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@article{osti_901186,
title = {Meteorological Integration for the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System: General Guidance for BWIC Cities},
author = {Shaw, William J. and Wang, Weiguo and Rutz, Frederick C. and Chapman, Elaine G. and Rishel, Jeremy P. and Xie, YuLong and Seiple, Timothy E. and Allwine, K Jerry},
abstractNote = {The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for developing systems to detect the release of aerosolized bioagents in urban environments. The system that accomplishes this, known as BioWatch, is a robust first-generation monitoring system. In conjunction with the BioWatch detection network, DHS has also developed a software tool for cities to use to assist in their response when a bioagent is detected. This tool, the Biological Warning and Incident Characterization (BWIC) System, will eventually be deployed to all BioWatch cities to aid in the interpretation of the public health significance of indicators from the BioWatch networks. BWIC consists of a set of integrated modules, including meteorological models, that estimate the effect of a biological agent on a city’s population once it has been detected. For the meteorological models in BWIC to successfully calculate the distribution of biological material, they must have as input accurate meteorological data, and wind fields in particular. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for cities to use in identifying sources of good-quality local meteorological data that BWIC needs to function properly. This process of finding sources of local meteorological data, evaluating the data quality and gaps in coverage, and getting the data into BWIC, referred to as meteorological integration, is described. The good news for many cities is that meteorological measurement networks are becoming increasingly common. Most of these networks allow their data to be distributed in real time via the internet. Thus, cities will often only need to evaluate the quality of available measurements and perhaps add a modest number of stations where coverage is poor.},
doi = {10.2172/901186},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2007},
month = {Fri Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2007}
}
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DOI:  10.2172/901186
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