KUWAITI WELL'S SMOKE PLUMES MONITORED

Personnel from the atmospheric release advisory capability (ARAC) team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif., are providing forecasts of smoke plumes to scientists evaluating the environmental effect of more than 500 oil wells ablaze in Kuwait. A team of scientists, engineers, and pilots from Pacific Northwest Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratory arrived July 28 in Bahrain to begin research flights in the region's darkened skies.

Aug. 12, 1991

2 min read

A team of scientists, engineers, and pilots from Pacific Northwest Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratory arrived July 28 in Bahrain to begin research flights in the region's darkened skies.

Group leader Tom Sullivan said ARAC forecasts enable scientists to plan flights precisely to get the most information possible from their measurements.

The ARAC group receives meteorological data from Air Force Global Weather Central in Omaha, Neb. ARAC uses the data to model where the smoke plumes are blowing in the Persian Gulf area.

Sullivan noted: "It's difficult in that part of the world to get good meteorological support for these flights into the plumes. The aircraft doesn't have a problem finding the most visible parts of the plume. The difficulty comes when you get downwind and the plume is so diffuse you can't see it directly."

ARAC's forecasting aims to alleviate that problem.

The group will focus on downwind air sampling to study emission characteristics as far as 620 miles from the source. Researchers will sample the plume at different altitudes as it moves downwind to observe changes in its chemical, physical, and optical properties.

Data will help provide estimates of whether there is enough smoke to alter air and surface temperatures. Researchers also will measure the rate at which the plume loses its toxic properties as it is transported, enabling them to calculate the potential for toxic deposits on agricultural regions in Europe.

The aircraft is scheduled to continue research flights through Aug. 20.

The ARAC group is committed to supporting flights 7 days/week with one daily forecast of two time periods divided in increments of 12 hr each.