ARGOS 9.0 released
ARGOS 9.0 was released in February 2010. Because this version includes lots of new functionality, we decided to move the version number from 8.4 to 9.0. Among the new features are
ERMIN countermeasure model integrated
9.0 is the first ARGOS version where the European Model for Inhabited Areas (ERMIN) model is operational.
The EURANOS project was partly funding both the development of the ERMIN model, and its integration in the ARGOS and RODOS systems. For a description of the ERMIN model, see the article here:
ERMIN model.
Inhabited areas (cities) contain most of the population in
more or less urbanized environments, where more people are
exposed to deposited contaminants. Such areas should
therefore be considered in much higher detail. The ERMIN
model brings together a number of models and datasets and
embeds an actual transfer model that also takes into account
the weathering of material on building surfaces and movement
of radionuclide’s around the inhabited environment. The
ERMIN model is used on a gridded 100-meter scale.
It is necessary to specify for each grid square an
“environment breakdown”, that indicates a relationship to a
number of pre-calculated data-sets for relative initial
deposition of radioactivity between environmental surfaces,
for a range of deposition scenarios.
Figure 1. Using of ERMIN in a local area specifying environment breakdown in grid cells.
The ARGOS user interface allows a number of the estimated doses to be displayed on the map and plots of distribution of surface dose on to groups of surfaces can be shown for each of the grid squares.
Figure 2. Distribution of surface dose.
AGRICP
The new AgriCP (Agricultural Countermeasure Program) module for estimating agricultural countermeasures is an independent module that simulates only agricultural countermeasures. This sharpening of the profile of the module allows using functions the foodchain and dose module FDMT to estimate the effect of countermeasures directly when simulating the processes in the foodchain. In this way a combination of countermeasures is possible to be defined and modelled correctly when calculating the behaviour of the radionuclide in the environment.
Like the ERMIN model, the EURANOS project was partly funding
both the development of the AGRICP model, and its
integration in the ARGOS and RODOS systems.
NOMADS (NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution System)
ARGOS 9.0 supports the use of the meteorological forecasts retrieved from the American NOMADS project at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOMADS project gives access to free NWP data all around the world.
This has two main advantages: 1) This gives a quick first
step implementation for a new country, where the integration
with the local Metrological Institute might of course take
some time. 2) It is now easy to run a quick prognoses for
any location in the world, even if the local Metrological
Institute might not be able to run a weather forecast for
this location.
For a description of the NOMADS project see:
HYSTRIX integration
ARGOS 9.0 comes with the ability to use the new flow model
from Risø DTU for complex terrain – HYSTRIX.
Hystrix is like LINCOM used to calculate a detailed
flow-field across a terrain. HYSTRIX is using a more
detailed terrain description and highly advanced equations.
NUDFLOW
NUDFLOW is a model developed by the Swedish FOI(http://www.foi.se) for calculating the wind flow around houses in an Urban environment. The output of NUDFLOW is used as input to the Urban Dispersion Model (URD) which is included in ARGOS.
NUDFLOW is a mass consistent flow program that from a general wind speed profile and a set of shape files describing the buildings, calculates how the wind circulates around the buildings. NUDFLOW has an option to take recirculation zones into account.
Figure 3. ARGOS prognosis for simulated release in Copenhagen.
Isocurves
Isocurve handling in ARGOS has been improved. A new isocurve dialog has been introduced allowing selection of colors and hatches for isocurves, and isocurve group handling has been enhanced as well.
The enhanced Isocurve handling has partly been financed by the DIADEM project because there was a strong wish to easily display the various levels of concern for chemical substances, instead of the old ARGOS plume with a color scale.
Also…
A large number of bug fixes and other improvements...