Quality control of meteorological data for the chemical stockpile emergency preparedness program

Abstract

The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program Meteorological Support Project ensures the accuracy and reliability of data acquired by meteorological monitoring stations located at seven U.S. Army chemical weapons depots where storage and weapons destruction (demilitarization) activities are ongoing. The data are delivered in real time to U.S. Army plume dispersion models, which are used to plan for and respond to a potential accidental release of a chemical weapons agent. The project provides maintenance, calibration, and audit services for the instrumentation; collection, automated screening, visual inspection, and analysis of the data; and problem reporting and tracking to carefully control the data quality. The resulting high-quality meteorological data enhance emergency response modeling and public safety. © 2009 American Meteorological Society.