An Ill Wind

Six sensor towers have recently been installed atop government buildings in the D.C.-metro area. The goal is to model wind paths so as to predict the dispersion patterns of bio/chem/radiological weapons. Slightly disturbing nugget buried in the piece: they'd previously modeled this using measurements taken at Reagan National, which appear to give results as much as 90 degrees off from actual downtown D.C. wind flows.

Comments

[thoreau]

If what you're saying is that they get erroneous results by only using data taken at the airport, I'm not surprised. Extrapolating from one area to an entire city is by no means guaranteed to be accurate. The more data and the larger the sampled area the more accuracy you get.

[alkali]

Ah, yes, the sensor towers erected in downtown DC to detect "wind patterns." I'm sure those sensors will provide the government with a lot of good information about "wind patterns." (fastens tinfoil hat even more firmly to head)

[Glenn C]

Wind directions from Reagan (National) are perpindicular to the prevailing winds from Capitol Hill. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

[Anonymous]

"as much as 90 degrees off from actual downtown D.C." ?

Oh, what a shame. Woulda been perfect.