Transport Modeling & Assessment

The HYSPLIT model was used to simulate a single Idaho fire for the entire month of August 2000. This animation shows daily snapshots (at 1800 UTC) of the HYSPLIT particle positions superimposed over the TOMS satellite aerosol index for the corresponding time. Colors vary by 0.5 units for the aerosol index values. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

The primary focus of the Transport Modeling & Assessment Group in Silver Spring is dispersion modeling. Dispersion modeling has both research and real-time components. ARL's primary mission is to develop, improve, and test dispersion models for a variety of different applications. Here in Silver Spring, we do not have a real-time mission requirement, but develop these models for the National Weather Service:

For aviation safety in the event of a volcanic eruption - http://www.arl.noaa.gov/VolcAsh.php,
For emergency managers in the event of homeland security incident,
In support of international agreements between NOAA & the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in the event of large-scale nuclear accident - http://www.arl.noaa.gov/READYEmerg.php.

The models we develop are also used by other federal agencies for a variety of different applications (e.g. national security, assessments, Continuity of Government, etc.). We connect with our "customers" primarly through web interfaces, where we provide a variety of dispersion modeling and data analysis tools to other NOAA components, government agencies, university researchers, and the public.

Researcher	Primary Research Interest	Other Interests
Roland Draxler	HYSPLIT Development	Tracer Studies Modeling Large-Scale Duststorms Wildfire Smoke Forecasting
Ariel Stein	Wildfire Smoke Forecasting	Dust Storms Air Quality
Barbara Stunder	Volcanic Ash Modeling	Meteorological Data Archival HYSPLIT Trajectories
Glenn Rolph	READY	Wildfire Smoke Forecasting RSMC Meteorological Data Archival
Mark Cohen	Fate & Transport of Air Toxics