A framework for developing synthetic chemical and biological agent release data sets

Our nation invests heavily in technologies to def end against the hostile use of chemical and biologi cal (CB) weapons and ensure that Department of Defense (DoD) operations remain unconstrained by a CB attack. The new contaminatio avoidance systems now being developed and tested are key to meeting this requir ment. The robust system development and testing o f these technologies requires the extensive use of observational data sets. Unfortun ately, it is not cost-effective to create the large quantity of data sets necessary for this task through simulated-agent or live-agent testing. Virt ual-environment test data sets provide a powerful t ool that can be used to overcome this challenge. This presentation will describe a model ing and simulation framework currently under develo pment that is designed to meet this critical need. This framework, called the Virtual THreat Response Emulation and Analysis Testbed (VTH REAT), accomplishes this task by utilizing a variety of research grade atmospheric a nd transport and dispersion (T&D) models to generat e physically realistic four-dimensional representations of the CB agent behavior in various turbulent atmospheric environments. These virtual environments may then be probed by virtual CB sensor platforms, to evaluate their perf ormance under varying atmospheric regimes, backgrou nd interferent levels, and CB release scenarios. One of the core modeling components, ca lled the EULerian semi-LAGrangian research model fo r geophysical flows (EULAG), can utilize Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) or La rge Eddy Simulation (LES) numerical techniques for simulating atmospheric turbulent flows and is used extensively by the atmospheric tu rbulence community. Within VTHREAT, EULAG has been coupled to a Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model (LPDM) to simulate the tu rb lent transport and dispersion of a CB material r elease. The combined EULAG/LPDM system has undergone preliminary evaluat ions characterizing its ability to produce realisti c v rtual CB dispersion patterns, has been used to support field test planning/design , and is being enhanced to test future CB defense a pplic tions. Examples of these evaluations and applications will be presented alon g with a discussion of future plans. The presentat ion will also include a demonstration of the latest VTHREAT User Interface (UI).