Laboratory employees can check out a unique hazard-detection plane this morning at Los Alamos Airport.
The ASPECT plane, a one-of-a-kind emergency response tool operated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Laboratory, has been deployed more than 40 times for emergencies across the country, carrying chemical and radiological detection equipment to alert first responders and civilians in the path of toxic plumes from fires, railcar derailments, truck rollovers and plant explosions.
The Airborne Spectral Photometric Collection Technology, or ASPECT plane, is scheduled to be on the scene in New Mexico during the fire season and for support to special events. It will be at the airport between 10 and 11:30 a.m.
Scientists and staff from Los Alamos and the EPA will be on hand to answer questions about the ASPECT system. In addition, videotape of disasters will be provided showing events to which the plane has responded.
The plane, a twin-engine Aerocommander 680 aircraft regularly based in the Dallas, Texas vicinity, is equipped with a multi-spectral infrared mapping system and a Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer package called ASPECT. This airborne sensor is the only "stand-off infrared" detection tool in the nation devoted to emergency domestic response applications. The technology provides first responders with critical information regarding the size, shape, composition and concentration of gas clouds.
The ASPECT plane and equipment have flown during the Texas oil refinery fires earlier this year, the NASA space shuttle debris search, the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, during the fires in California in summer 2003, and during chemical plant and rail-car accidents in a number of states.
The ASPECT system uses three sensors on the aircraft, operated by an EPA first-responder crew. The first sensor, the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer, detects and locates chemical vapors. It can see through smoke and dust to get a measurement of the location and concentration of the vapor plume. A second sensor, a high-resolution Infrared Line Scanner, records an image of the ground below, as well as plume information.
The system then uses Global Positioning System mapping data and digital images of the site to create exact maps and digital data overlays of chemical plumes and low area locations where toxin-laden air may accumulate.
