This talk will discuss some of the characteristics of meteorology that are especially important for urban emergency response with an emphasis on observations made during the Midtown Manhattan 2005 (MID05) experiment which was conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Urban Dispersion Program. National Weather Service stations located outside cities may not always provide the best measure of the winds for an emergency response in a city. Measurements made during MID05 reveal that building-top meteorological stations in cities can enhance the tools available to urban emergency responders. An additional asset for urban response is remote sensing profile measurements as obtained by sodars or radars. These provide wind speed and direction up to several hundreds or thousands of meters above the surface. The importance of understanding how synoptic conditions can affect an urban center and the value of building-top and profile measures is illustrated with a brief analysis of the January 8, 2007 stagnation event in which a gas-like odor permeated throughout the New Jersey-New York City metropolitan area.
(PNNL-SA-55607)
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