Weather Support for

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Because you need to expect the unexpected!!!

1) Meteorological support for real-time andforecasted variables (e.g., wind, precipitation,temperature, etc.)

2) Meteorological support for CAMEO/ALOHA and access to output from a national dispersion model -HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian- Integrated Trajectory)

5) NOAA Weather Radio – all hazards capability

3) Support from the Scientific Support Coordinator(Great Lakes and Western Rivers)

4) Support from NOAA-Seattle

Meteorological support for real-time and forecast weather elements

Surface observations(wind, temperature, visibility, etc)

Wind profile from the Doppler radar

Thermodynamic atmospheric profileradiosonde (balloon)

Forecastmodel Fields

In thiscase –surface pressureandprecip

Satellite

Radar – precipitationtiming and intensity

Forecasted 12 hour Windsat 1 km and 2 km

And of course, there’s always that tried and true method of forecasting!!!!!!!

Flip a coin?

A little about concentrationor exposure

The NWS can help with at least two important variablescritical for concentrations/exposure (Wind & Stability)

Relationship between wind and concentration

Wind is inversely proportional to the concentration!-the stronger the wind, the lower the concentration-the weaker the wind, the higher the concentration

Stability – the downwind plume from an event will beextremely dependent on the structure of the temperatureprofile in the vertical (the stability)

Stable atmospherestays very confinedIn the vertical

Unstable atmosphereover stablestays confined abovesurface, but expandsaloft

Very unstable atmospherespreads very widely overthe vertical

Unstable atmospherespreads vertically with time and distance

Stable atmosphereover unstableStarts with little verticalExtent, but with mixingExpands greatly

2) Support for CAMEO and access to HYSPLIT

CAMEO/ALOHA – designed to estimate local impactsand weather conditions do not vary (normally run by local emergency management)-basically near ground-time scale of one hour after event-distance of 10 km downstream

HYSPLIT – designed to estimate long-range transportand dispersion and uses operational weather models as input (normally run by NWS, NOAA)- elevated/ejected releases & large scale diffusion-time scale = several hours to several days-distance = significant distances downstream

CAMEO (Input)

CAMEO (Output)

HYSPLIT

Trajectory output

HYSPLITConcentrationoutput for 2 hours endingat 2000 UTC

HYSPLITConcentrationoutput for 2 hours endingat 2200 UTC

HYSPLITConcentrationoutput for 2 hours endingat 0000 UTC

HYSPLIT output loop of concentration over an 6 hr period based on model data from 20 Feb 2007

Release/event point = Southwest of Columbus

HYSPLIT output loop of deposition over an 6 hr period based on model data from 20 Feb 2007

Release/event point = Southwest of Columbus

NOAA In Your NeighborhoodNOAA In Your Neighborhood

CoastWatch Nodes

Weather Forecast Office (122)River Forecast Center (13)NCEP Center (9)Center Weather Service Units (22)NESDIS CoastWatch Nodes (9)NOS HazMat OfficeNOS Coastal Services CenterNESDIS Nat. Climatic Data Center

X = Scientific Coordinator

X

Work together on events

Scientific Support Coordinator (Great Lake and Western Rivers) is located in Cleveland and the NOAA – Seattle (NOS HAZMAT office) generally work together if there is an “event”.

-EPA usually gets involved with small chemical spills (events) and NOAA with the large ones.-NOAA will also be brought in on spills/releases on the larger rivers and can support plume dispersion through CAMEO/ALOHA . -Coast Guard for barge or ship releases.

NOAA’s involvement in any particular event generally depends on if the EPA, Coast Guard, or EMA calls them.NOAA/NOS 24 hour operations # = 206-526-4911

NOAA-NOSWebsite(response.restoration.noaa.gov)

NOAA ALL Hazards Weather NOAA ALL Hazards Weather RadioRadio

www.weather.gov/nwr

Broadcasts are found in the public service band at these seven broadcast frequencies (MHz):

162.400 162.400

MHz MHz

162.425162.425

MHz MHz

162.450162.450

MHz MHz

162.475162.475

MHz MHz

162.500162.500

MHz MHz

162.525162.525

MHz MHz

162.550162.550

MHz MHz

All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio in Ohio

At times, the WSR88D Doppler Weather Radar can also aid inThe monitoring and tracking of non-meteorological events.

Marsh Fire in Mentor (Lake County)28 April 2003

Space Shuttle debris plume – 01 Feb 2003

TWA Flight 800 debris field

Plume from large tire fire in Washington County, PA

The END….hey, remember, be careful out there!