News Archives

Shielding the Pentagon
UCAR, Staff Notes, May 2004
Ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. defense officials have been eyeing new technologies to defend potential terrorism targets. Now they have tapped NCAR to help develop a groundbreaking system to protect the Pentagon and its occupants, who often number more than 25,000, from airborne toxins.

Pentagon Plans Test of Atmospheric Dispersion
United States Department of Defense, News Release, April 19, 2004
The Department of Defense announced today that an atmospheric dispersion survey will be held in and around the Pentagon from April 19 to May 15, 2004. The resulting data will be used to improve, refine and verify a computer model.

Cutting-Edge Sensors and Software Tests Will Help Protect Pentagon from Airborne Hazards
UCAR, New Release, April 23, 2004
A breakthrough blend of high-tech instruments and weather forecasting models is being tested at the Pentagon April 15–May 15. Coordinated by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the tests scan for potential airborne toxins near the Pentagon and predict their motion and impact on the building. The knowledge gained from the tests will allow the development of improved systems for protecting Department of Defense facilities.

Conference Publications and Presentations

Warner, T., Operational Forecasting with Very-High-Resolution Models (pdf) (flash) (html)

8th Annual George Mason University Transport and Dispersion Modeling Conference
Fairfax, VA, 13-15 July 2004

Swerdlin, S., Pentagon Shield Overview (pdf) (flash) (html)

Copeland, J., Pentagon Shield Modeling System Integration (pdf) (flash) (html)

Smolarkiewicz, P. and Sharman, B., EuLag Simulate Flow Around the Pentagon (pdf) (flash) (html)

Sharman, B., Bar-or, O., Jensen, M., Y. Meillier, Balsley, B., Boundary Layer Measurements and Intercomparisons (pdf) (flash) (html)

Copeland, J., Knievel, J., Sharman, B., Swerdlin, S., Warner, T., Weil, J., Hazardous Release Awareness for Site Protection (pdf) (flash) (html)

Weil, J., Clawson, K., Benda, P., Bowers, J., ,Storwold, D., Jensen, M., Mayor, S., and Knievel, S., Field Experiements on Tracer Dispersion About the Pentagon (pdf)

Sun, J., Zhang, Y., Xu, M., Crook, A.,. Warner, T., and Weil, J., Boundary Layer Wind Analysis and Prediction by Assimilation of Doppler Lidar Wind Data" (pdf) (flash) (html)

Mayor, S., Spuler, S., Morley, B., and Poulos, G., NCAR's New Raman-shifted Eye-safe Aerosol Lidar (REAL) and First Results from use in a Densely Populated Urban Area" (pdf) (flash) (html)

5th Symposium on the Urban Environment
Vancouver, BC, Canada, 23-28 August 2004

Knievel, J., An Overview of the Pentagon Shield 2004 Field Campaign (pdf)

Links

REAL Dispersion video (avi)

Staff Briefing Flyer, 9 July 2004 Briefing (pdf) (html)

Hurricane Katrina (avi)