10th Annual George Mason University Conference on Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling Debbie Payton and Mark Miller Hazardous Materials Response Division OFCM Special Session: Challenges of Urban Test Beds

2 of 9 Urban Test Beds: User Perspectives Who are the users? What questions do they need answered? How do we provide the information in a useful way? A “built it and they will come” approach probably won’t work for Test Beds. To make the data usable by a broad audience, the first steps are to consider:

3 of 9 Our Challenge “To take our forecasts and analyses to where people live and work.” ~ a recently retired federal employee

4 of 9 Who are the users? Researchers Meteorologists/Forecasters Emergency Managers/Planners Emergency Responders (includes NOAA HAZMAT) We’ll focus on the last two “new” user groups who have different needs than the traditional user groups.

5 of 9 What do they need? I need the data when I want it  Available 24/7 I need the data in a format I can use  Graphical/GIS I need the data to be accurate  Real-time QA/QC I need to understand the data  Familiar terminology I may need help interpreting the data  Reachback (?) The system has to be operational.

6 of 9 Communicate Information Effectively Differences between Archived, Real-time, and Forecast data (that is, Past vs. Now vs. Later). Differences between actual data (point data) and predictions (model data).  Is there a correlation or not? (That is, does the model accurately “predict” observed data?)  If not, what is uncertainty? Is it communicated to the users in a way that they can incorporate it into their decision making process? Response and Planning Users need to understand:

Simple Questions, Complex Answers Where is the bad stuff going? How soon will it get there? Where can I send someone to monitor? Can I get real-time warnings about hazardous weather?

8 of 9 Final Thoughts If we want to win support in today’s budgetary environment we need to move beyond traditional uses of urban test beds. Urban test beds should be designed to provide operational information from the start.  Make high quality information available to wider decision making audience in a form that can be used.

9 of 9 Really Final Thoughts… “There are plenty of data available, from instruments erected within the canopy by environmental agencies and private companies. Unfortunately, their data are not likely to be of use in the context of conventional mesoscale models, but it is not these conventional models that are appropriate for the mission at hand. Hence, we must learn how to extract relevant data from the large number of observations now available.” ~ a recently retired federal employee