D.C. to get tower to track radioactive clouds

[Soldier4Christ]

D.C. to get tower to track radioactive clouds 
Network for monitoring 'hotspots' nears completion

The nation's first network of research instruments meant for tracking radioactive plumes or other toxic contaminants will near completion here today when researchers erect a 30-foot meteorological station atop the American Geophysical Union.

Using data from the new network, which so far has 11 stations in the nation's capital, scientists expect to create and test computer models that would calculate neighborhood-scale projections of a radioactive or toxic cloud's spread.

The analysis might also specify locations of contamination "hot spots," says atmospheric physicist Christoph A. Vogel of the Air Resources Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Md.

That would enable first responders and citizens to know "which streets you would want to go down and which to avoid," he adds.

The NOAA-funded network, known as UrbaNet, also supports activities of the Department of Homeland Security.

AGU is an international organization of scientists who study and publish research on Earth and space sciences.

The new monitoring station will include a device called a sonic anemometer that uses high-frequency sound waves to measure wind velocity in all directions simultaneously at brief time intervals. With such data, scientists can analyze local air turbulence that strongly influences where and at what rate airborne contaminants spread in an urban environment, Vogel explains.