Long Range Transport: Evaluation of a Particle-Incell Model Using Sources in the US and USSR

Abstract

After being informed that radioactive material from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had been discovered on the clothing of workers at a Swedish reactor site, the United States Department of Energy requested that the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) evaluate both the extent and the magnitude of the accident (Dickerson and Sullivan, 1987). ARAC is a real-time emergency response service that specializes in the regional assessment of radiological accidents using advanced dispersion models. While we possessed a sizable inventory of computer models with which to address this problem, we lacked an operational tool that could be used with confidence in determining the fate of airborne radioactivity beyond about 500 km. As an outgrowth of this experience, we began to explore the spatial limits of applicability of our Advection-Diffusion Particle-In-Cell (ADPIC) model (Lange, 1978). At the same time, we began testing a hybrid version of this model that uses the Air Force Global Weather Central’s Northern Hemisphere Whole Mesh Grid of wind velocities as input. In combination, these models can provide, potentially, a response capability that extends from tens of kilometers to the entire Northern Hemisphere.