One of the many functions of ARL is to provide meteorological services and related
research to NOAA and to other Federal agencies, in order to predict the consequences of
atmospheric releases of radioactivity and other potentially harmful
materials. For example, ARL's volcanic ash program provides critical information
on plume transport and dispersion to the aviation
industry; ARL's involvement in the Kuwait oil fires provided real-time application of
ARL's emergency response capabilities; and ARL, together with the help
of the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP),
is a Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) for transport and dispersion
products through the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
ARL, along with the Canadian Meteorological Centre
(CMC), the joint RSMC for this region, provide meteorological guidance and
dispersion predictions in the event of an atmospheric release of radioactive or hazardous
materials crossing international boundaries in North and Central America.
ARL has a unique working arrangement with its partner organization, the
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of the
National Weather Service (NWS).
This arrangement allows ARL to access meteorological observations
and forecast model fields that have been specifically selected for use in
atmospheric dispersion models, such as the HYSPLIT model.
Close collaboration with NCEP has given ARL the ability to access gridded meteorological data as
soon as the forecast model completes its execution at NCEP.
ARL also has established a direct communications line between it's
own computers and the NWS
Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG) computers. This connection
provides ARL with all regularly transmitted text and gridded
data from the Family of Services (FOS) offered by NWS. These data
include observations and forecasts issued by the NWS.
READY was initially developed to pool together the many computer resources
available at ARL for displaying meteorological data and atmospheric transport
model products. READY, originally developed for the PC, has now been made
available to anyone with a web browser. Users can access many of the products
available to ARL personnel for analyzing forecast meteorological data. In addition
users can run the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model, which
makes READY, via the web, unique.