CT-Analyst: fast and accurate CBR emergency assessment

An urban-oriented emergency assessment system for airborne Chemical, Biological, and Radiological (CBR) threats, called CT-Analyst and based on new principles, gives greater accuracy and much greater speed than possible with current alternatives. This paper explains how this has been done. The increased accuracy derives from detailed, three-dimensional CFD computations including, solar heating, buoyancy, complete building geometry specification, trees, wind fluctuations, and particle and droplet distributions (as appropriate). This paper shows how a very finite number of such computations for a given area can be extended to all wind directions and speeds, and all likely sources and source locations using a new data structure called Dispersion Nomographs. Finally, we demonstrate a portable, entirely graphical software tool called CT-Analyst that embodies this entirely new, high-resolution technology and runs effectively on small personal computers. Real-time users don't have to wait for results because accurate answers are available with near zero-latency (that is 10 - 20 scenarios per second). Entire sequences of cases (e.g. a continuously changing source location or wind direction) can be computed and displayed as continuous-action movies. Since the underlying database has been precomputed, the door is wide open for important new real-time, zero-latency functions such as sensor data fusion, backtracking to an unknown source location, and even evacuation route planning. Extensions of the technology to sensor location optimization, buildings, tunnels, and integration with other advanced technologies, e.g. micrometeorology or detailed wind field measurements, will be discussed briefly here.