![Charles Krause uses a cold field emission scanning electron microscope to study pesticide distribution on plant leaves. Link to photo information](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090513032639im_/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/dec00/k9164-1i.jpg) ARS plant
pathologist Charles Krause studies pesticide distribution on plant leaves. His
research team has released software to estimate pesticide drift
distances. |
![Ecologist Stephen Wraight examines nozzles used to spray spores of a natural pathogen of insect pests. Link to photo information](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090513032639im_/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/nov00/k9123-2i.jpg) The new software
helps ensure that spray nozzles and other equipment and techniques will
minimize pesticide drift.
|
Unique Software for Preventing Pesticide
Drift
By Don
Comis July 25, 2005
The first user-friendly computer software for estimating the droplet
drift distances for pesticide spray applications has been released by
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and
Ohio State University (OSU) agricultural
engineers.
Heping
Zhu and
Robert
Fox at ARS'
Application
Technology Research Unit in Wooster, Ohio, and Erdal Ozkan at OSU-Columbus
named the new software "DRIFTSIM," for Drift Simulator. ARS is the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief
scientific research agency.
The OSU Communications and
Technology Office is distributing the DRIFTSIM software for a nominal fee.
[To place an order, visit
this OSU-CTS web
page.] The Windows-based software can help farmers and Extension Service
educators minimize pesticide drift by helping them choose equipment, settings
and techniques. It also helps manufacturers design pesticide formulations and
pesticide spraying equipment to minimize drift potential of their products.
This program extrapolates from a large database of drift distances
originally calculated for single droplets of sprayed pesticides with a
computational fluid dynamics program called FLUENT. This older program can only
be run by specially trained operators, as is true of all other pesticide-drift
programs up to now.
Most pesticides are applied with water. Under the wrong conditions,
pesticide-laden water droplets can be carried hundreds of feet in the wind. The
new software can estimate drift distances for controlled variables, unlike
outdoor tests in which the weather and other factors frequently change,
confounding experimental outcomes.
To calculate the likelihood of pesticide drift, the program allows
pesticide spray operators and manufacturers to specify wind speed, droplet size
and speed, nozzle height, operating pressure, air temperature and relative
humidity.
DRIFTSIM is a product of the Wooster unit's mission to research new
pesticide application technologies for protection of floricultural, nursery,
landscape, turf, horticultural and field crops against damage from diseases,
pests and adverse environmental conditions, while safeguarding environmental
quality and food and worker safety.