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ARL Organization
ARL, part of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research, is a distributed Laboratory with its headquarters in
Silver Spring, Maryland and divisions in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Las Vegas,
Nevada, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Headquarters develops products to augment the
operational product suites of the NOAA service-oriented line offices
(particularly the National Weather Service). This includes the
research and development of improved dispersion models for emergency
response and air quality forecast models. Headquarters also improves
the understanding of climate variability and trends, the exchange of
pollutants between the air and land, and the sources of mercury that
influence sensitive ecosystems.
ATDD
concentrates on air quality and climate-related research directed
toward issues of national and global importance. In their air quality
research, ATDD develops better methods for predicting transport,
dispersion, and air-surface exchange of air pollutants; applies these
methods to increasingly realistic situations including nighttime
cases, complex terrain, and non-uniform surfaces; and tests these
methods against data to determine the confidence limits and
uncertainties which apply. ATDD's climate-related research includes
reference-grade measurement of climate change and related physical and
chemical processes.
FRD conducts
experiments to better understand atmospheric transport and dispersion,
improves both the theory and models of air-surface exchange processes,
and develops new technologies and instrumentation to carry out its
mission. In a cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy,
the Division supports the Idaho National Laboratory with
meteorological forecasts and emergency response capabilities.
SORD conducts basic and
applied research in atmospheric dispersion, particle re-suspension,
particle deposition, and the effects of airborne particles on
atmospheric opacity. The Division supports issues of mutual interest
to NOAA and the Department of Energy that relate to the Nevada Test
Site, its atmospheric environment, and its emergency preparedness and
emergency response activities.