Project Description

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) and Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) propose an empirically-based study to: 1) provide additional information on key vehicle (wheeled and tracked) characteristics that influence dust emissions, 2) define transfer standards that enable effective and efficient modification of available emission factors to represent wider geographic areas using available dust emission potential measurement systems (TRAKER and PI-SWERL), 3) identify practically quantifiable surface properties that are most useful for estimating dust emission strength as a function of soil moisture and disturbance level, 4) identify and quantify terrain properties that are most useful for estimating attenuation of emissions by near-field deposition processes, and 5) integrate the results via formulation of appropriate algorithms into a developed dust emission and transport model (DUSTRAN). DUSTRAN can be used by DoD personnel to quantify fugitive emissions for their particular areas and testing-training scenarios.