Human health threats posed by airborne pathogens are difficult to handle for healthcare responders due to the fact that the contaminated area is not immediately recognizable. By means of wind dispersion modeling, it is possible to estimate the extent and geographical position of hazardous areas and health impact. Contemporary modeling tools can run on standard PCs, with short processing time and with easy-to-use interfaces. This enables health professionals without modeling experience to assess consequences of dispersion incidents, for example, from accidental releases from industries, shedding of pathogens from infectious animals or humans, as well as intentional releases caused by terrorist activity. Dispersion assessments can provide response managers with a chance to get on top of events. In the absence of modeling, reliable estimates of hazard areas may not be available until no earlier than the appearance of the first cases or after time-consuming sampling and laboratory analysis. In this article, the authors describe the concept of using wind dispersion assessments in epidemiological field investigations of naturally occurring disease outbreaks, as well as for bioterror scenarios. They describe the specifications of user friendly and real-time functional wind dispersion modeling systems that can serve as decision support tools during outbreak investigations and outline some of the currently available software packages.

Download full-text PDF

Source

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

wind dispersion
12
dispersion modeling
8
dispersion assessments
8
dispersion
6
modeling
5
assessment tools
4
tools support
4
support epidemiological
4
epidemiological investigation
4
investigation airborne
4

Similar Publications

Aerosol transport and associated boundary layer thermodynamics under contrasting synoptic conditions over a semiarid site.

Sci Total Environ

January 2025

Department of Geosciences, Atmospheric Science Division, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA; National Wind Institute, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA. Electronic address:

Understanding the kinematics of aerosol horizontal transport and vertical mixing near the surface, within the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), and in the overlying free troposphere (FT) is critical for various applications, including air quality and weather forecasting, aviation, road safety, and dispersion modeling. Empirical evidence of aerosol mixing processes within the ABL during synoptic-scale events over arid and semiarid regions (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nuclear Waste Tank Emission Contributions to Particle Size Distribution.

Health Phys

January 2025

Atmospheric Technologies Group, Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC.

Pollutants from anthropogenic activities including industrial processes are ubiquitous to the environment. To understand the impact from industrial aerosol on climate and human health, industrial aerosol needs to be better characterized. In this study, particle number concentrations were used as a proxy for atmospheric pollutants, which include both particles and gases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study presents a modern mobile laboratory to monitor outdoor air quality in Bucharest, Romania, with a focus on pollutants associated with transportation. Particulate matter (PM., PM), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O), sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen oxides (NO, NO), and BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) were among the significant pollutants that were examined in the lab.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Contrasting Responses of Smoke Dispersion and Fire Emissions to Aerosol-Radiation Interaction during the Largest Australian Wildfires in 2019-2020.

Environ Sci Technol

January 2025

Key Laboratory for Semi-Arid Climate Change of the Ministry of Education, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.

The record-breaking 2019-2020 Australian wildfires have been primarily linked to climate change and its internal variability. However, the meteorological feedback mechanisms affecting smoke dispersion and wildfire emissions on a synoptic scale remain unclear. This study focused on the largest wildfires occurring between December 25, 2019 and January 10, 2020, under the enhanced subtropical high, when the double peak in wildfire evolution was favored by sustained low humidity and two synchronous increases in temperature and wind.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this paper, a robust fuzzy multi-objective framework is performed to optimize the dispersed and hybrid renewable photovoltaic-wind energy resources in a radial distribution network considering uncertainties of renewable generation and network demand. A novel multi-objective improved gradient-based optimizer (MOIGBO) enhanced with Rosenbrock's direct rotational technique to overcome premature convergence is proposed to determine the problem optimal decision variables. The deterministic optimization framework without uncertainty minimizes active energy loss, unmet customer energy, and renewable generation costs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!