Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Modelling & Software

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsoft

Real-time Environmental Applications and Display sYstem: READY

Glenn Rolph*, Ariel Stein, Barbara Stunder
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Air Resources Laboratory, NCWCP/RARL, 5830 University Research Ct., College Park, MD 20740, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Air quality forecasters, emergency responders, aviation interests, government agencies, and the atmo-
Received 23 February 2017 spheric research community are among those who require access to tools to analyze and predict the
Received in revised form transport and dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere. Because of this need, the unique web-based
15 May 2017
Real-time Environmental Applications and Display sYstem (READY) has been under continuous devel-
Accepted 16 June 2017
opment since 1997 to provide access to a suite of tools for producing air parcel trajectory and dispersion
model results and displaying meteorological data.
READY provides a quasi-operational portal to run the HYSPLIT atmospheric transport and dispersion
Keywords:
READY
model and interpret its results. Typical user applications include modeling the release of hazardous
HYSPLIT pollutants and volcanic ash, forest re and prescribed burn smoke forecasting, poor air quality events,
Atmospheric pollution and various climatological studies. In addition, READY provides the user with quick access to meteoro-
Meteorological data logical data interpolated to the location of interest, helping in the interpretation of the HYSPLIT model
Trajectory results.
Dispersion modeling Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction background on the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model. Sec-

Air quality forecasters, emergency responders, aviation in-
terests, government and international agencies, and the atmo-
spheric research community are among those who require quick
and easy access to tools that allow them to analyze and predict the
transport and dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere.
In order to provide these services in a timely manner and
convenient format, a web-based system was initially developed in
1997 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
(NOAA) Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) and named the Real-time
Environmental Applications and Display sYstem (READY, http://
www.ready.noaa.gov, Fig. 1). READY has been continuously main-
tained and expanded since then to provide access to a suite of new
tools for displaying meteorological forecast and archived data and
producing air parcel trajectory and dispersion model results
through a series of user-interactive web pages.
In this paper we provide an overview of the current READY
system and some of the unique applications that are available to the
scientic community and those needing access to dispersion model
products in real-time. In section 2 we give a short technical
description of the system design and in section 3 we provide a
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: glenn.rolph@noaa.gov (G. Rolph).
tion 4 provides information on the meteorological data available in
READY and section 5 provides details on all the meteorological
products available to READY users. In section 6 we give details on
the HYSPLIT products and training materials available in READY and
in section 7 we provide details on the DATEM Tracer Verication
Archive. Finally, in section 8, we highlight some of the future
products planned for READY including the use of the Weather
Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model and the
Short Range Ensemble Forecast (SREF) data by HYSPLIT.
2. System design
The impetus for creating the READY web site in 1997, when very
few interactive web sites were available, was the need from other
U.S. federal agencies to run the HYSPLIT atmospheric transport and
dispersion model (Stein et al., 2015) remotely and display the
graphical results. A common operational problem was retrieving
the graphical products from ARL's computer through the client's
rewall, which only allowed text data to be transmitted. As a
workaround, ARL congured the HYSPLIT model to be able to run
using a series of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, primarily
written in Perl, which requested the needed inputs from the user
via a web browser to produce a dispersion simulation and resulting
output graphics.
In addition to HYSPLIT, ARL had several programs written over

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.06.025
1364-8152/Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228 211

Fig. 1. Screenshot of READY, http://www.ready.noaa.gov, accessed 1 February 2017.

the preceding years to request and display meteorological data that
HYSPLIT used in its transport calculations. Dispersion modelers use
these tools to dissect the meteorological data used by the disper-
sion model to better understand the underlying atmospheric sta-
bility and wind patterns driving the transport and dispersion of
pollutants. These programs, which included displaying weather
data on maps, vertical soundings, and time-series plots, were also
rewritten to be able to function through the web server.
3. HYSPLIT model
HYSPLIT is one of the most widely used models for atmospheric
trajectory and dispersion calculations (Stein et al., 2015) and was
most likely the rst dispersion model available to the scientic
community through the web in 1997. HYSPLIT, initially developed
in the 1980's (Draxler, 1982; Draxler and Hess, 1998), is a
Lagrangian particle/puff model used for a wide range of applica-
tions from computing simple air parcel trajectories to complex
transport, dispersion, chemical transformation, and deposition
simulations with scales ranging between 1 and 1000's of
kilometers.
The model calculation method is a combination between a
moving frame of reference that follows air parcels as they move
from their initial location for the simulation of advection, diffusion,
and deposition (Lagrangian) and a xed three-dimensional grid as a
frame of reference to compute the pollutant air concentrations
212 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Table 1
Gridded forecast meteorology available within READY.

Model Vertical Coordinate Spatial Resolution Temporal Resolution Forecast Hours

HRRR pressure 3 km 1 hr 18
HRRR sigma 3 km 1 hr 18
NAM Fire Weather Nest sigma-pressure hybrid 1 km 1 hr 36
NAM CONUS Nest sigma-pressure hybrid 4 km 1 hr 48
NAM sigma-pressure hybrid 12 km 1 hr 48
NAM pressure 12 km 3 hr 84
NAM Hawaii sigma-pressure hybrid 2 km 1 hr 48
NAM Alaska sigma-pressure hybrid 12 km 1 hr 48
RAP pressure 20 km 1 hr 18
GFS sigma-pressure hybrid 0.5 deg. 3 hr 84
GFS pressure 1 deg. 3 hr 240
GFS pressure 1 deg. 12 hr 240e384

(Eulerian). The HYSPLIT model is designed to support a wide range
of simulations related to the atmospheric transport and dispersion
of pollutants and hazardous materials, as well as the deposition of
these materials to the Earth's surface. Some of the applications
include tracking and forecasting the release of radioactive material,
volcanic ash, wildre smoke, dust, and pollutants from various
stationary and mobile emission sources. The HYSPLIT dispersion
model is used operationally by NOAA and other federal agencies to
run complex atmospheric transport simulations. Furthermore,
NOAA provides dispersion modeling expertise and model products
to other US government agencies and international organizations
in its role as a leading atmospheric dispersion modeling center
(WMO, 2014).
In addition to the web, the model runs on LINUX, Mac, and
Windows (PC) operating systems using a series of Tcl/Tk Graphical
User Interfaces (GUIs). HYSPLIT-formatted meteorological data are
available for download through READY for use in locally installed
versions of HYSPLIT. More complex simulations can be run using
one of these three platforms as more options are available in the
Tcl/Tk GUIs than through the web and the user can use or modify
one of the provided batch scripts for running the model from the
command line.
4. Meteorological data
HYSPLIT requires meteorological elds on a three-dimensional
grid. Routines have been developed to create meteorological les
that are composed of one or more time periods containing surface
and upper-air (3D) elds important for calculating transport, mix-
ing, and deposition of pollutants. The les are created using a 1-
byte packing algorithm that saves the difference eld between
adjacent grid points instead of the actual values, thereby main-
taining the precision of the data when packed (Draxler, 1999). All
records in a data le are the same length to permit the model to
read the le in a direct access mode and these les can be read on
most computing platforms without any transformation. In addition,
the les can be appended to each other using routine operating
system commands such as cat or type. Several programs were
written and provided with the code to convert meteorological data
from other formats such as GRIB and GRIB Edition 2 (GRIB2) to the
HYSPLIT-compatible format.
Because the National Weather Service's (NWS) National Centers
for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is required to run HYSPLIT for
wildre smoke, volcanic ash, and other applications, some of the
NCEP meteorological forecast data are converted to HYSPLIT-
compatible format in the NCEP operational production stream.
All of the forecast meteorological data available through READY
(Table 1) comes directly from NCEP and includes a wide range of
scales; the Global Forecast System (GFS) model with a horizontal
resolutions of 0.5 and 1.0
latitude (~111 km), the 3 km High Res-
olution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model covering the lower 48 states,
and the 1 km NAM Fire Weather Nest which is relocated to a new
location when the need arises for detailed meteorological forecast
data (forest res or other atmospheric emergencies). In addition to
several models with pressure vertical coordinates, typically used by
forecasters for weather forecasting, READY also contains meteoro-
logical data on terrain following coordinates (sigma, sigma-
pressure hybrid) for the GFS, North American Mesoscale (NAM)
and HRRR. Terrain-following meteorological data are best suited for
calculating the atmospheric transport, dispersion, and deposition
within the planetary boundary layer typical of most uses of HYS-
PLIT. More details on all the forecast meteorological data can be
found at http://www.ready.noaa.gov/READYmetdata.php.
READY also has several archived analysis meteorological data
sets available (Table 2) including the HRRR, NAM, NAM Data
Assimilation System (NDAS), Global Data Assimilation System
(GDAS), and the NCEP/National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR) Reanalysis data. The NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data (Kalnay

Table 2
Gridded archived meteorology available within READY.

Model Vertical Coordinate Spatial Resolution Temporal Resolution Available Years

HRRR sigma 3 km 3 hr 2015 -

NDAS pressure 3 km 3 hr 1997 -
NAM CONUS Nest sigma-pressure hybrid 12 km 1 hr 2010 -
NAM pressure 12 km 3 hr 2007 -
NAM Hawaii sigma-pressure hybrid 2 km 1 hr 2010 -
NAM Alaska sigma-pressure hybrid 12 km 1 hr 2010 -
GDAS pressure 1 deg. 3 hr 2004 -
GDAS sigma-pressure hybrid 0.5 deg. 3 hr 2007 -
NARR pressure 32 km 3 hr 1979 -
NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis pressure 2.5 deg. 6 hr 1948 -
NGM sigma 182 km 2 hr 1991e1997
FNL pressure 191 km 6 hr 1997e2006
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228
et al., 1996), although coarse (2.5
latitude), has the longest period
of record with data beginning in 1948 to the present. Two data sets
that are no longer updated but are part of READY include the
Nested Grid Model (NGM, 1991e1997) and the Final (FNL,
1997e2006) global model. Given the multi-scaled, long period of
record of these data sets and the convenience of already being in
HYSPLIT-compatible format, atmospheric researchers have a valu-
able resource freely available to them through READY. More details
on all the archived meteorological data can be found at http://
www.ready.noaa.gov/archives.php.
In addition to the three-dimensional meteorological data dis-
cussed above, READY also receives surface observations, upper-air
observations, and other textual data directly from the NWS in
real-time through the use of the Local Data Manager (LDM) system
maintained by the Unidata Program Center (http://www.unidata.
ucar.edu/software/ldm). These data are processed and made
available to READY display programs through the use of the NCEP
Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (NAWIPS/LDM)
data decoders available from NCEP (http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.
gov/sib/nawips/).
Fig. 2. HRRR 18h forecast meteorogram for location 30.74N, 93.38 W valid beginning at 1500 UTC on December 5, 2016. Fields shown from top to bottom: Precipitation, total cloud
cover, 850 mb (hPa), 2 m temperature and dew point, and mean sea-level pressure.
213
5. Meteorological products
Within READY users can view the archived and forecast mete-
orological data interpolated to a user selected location using several
tools developed at ARL. The original intent of these products was
for analyzing the meteorological data used to drive the HYSPLIT
transport and dispersion model. However, today a large user-base
has been generated that relies on these products for a wide range
of other purposes, including manned-balloon and soaring plane
ight forecasting, K-12 and college level science experiments, and
weather forecasting. The user rst selects a link in READY to
archived or forecast products and then enters the location of in-
terest from a map, list of cities, or by entering a latitude/longitude
pair. The user is then presented with a list of meteorological display
products described below and a choice of the meteorological data
to display. After these selections are made, the user has the choice
of typically the last seven forecast cycles of the meteorological
model to display. Finally, a web page is presented to the user with
options specic to the product being displayed so that the product
is tailored for each user's need. Most products are graphical,
214 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Fig. 3. HRRR 18h forecast windgram for location 30.74N, 93.38 W valid beginning at 1500 UTC on December 5, 2016.

however a text formatted le is an option for most products.
5.1. Meteorograms
Meteorograms (Fig. 2) are time-series graphs of one to ten user-
chosen meteorological variables from the selected meteorological
archive or forecast data set interpolated to the user-selected loca-
tion. Three-dimensional elds also have the selection of the height
level to display. Meteorograms are useful for a quick view of the
meteorological conditions in the past (archived) or to be expected
(forecast) at the user-selected location. Currently, approximately
10,000 meteorograms are produced each day through the READY
web site, making it the most requested meteorological display
product in READY.
5.2. Windgrams
Windgrams (Fig. 3) are similar to meteorograms mentioned in
the last section (5.1) except that only the wind speeds and
directions at each time period are shown (as wind ags) at all levels
of the model for the length of time selected by the user. Note that in
the wind ags, a triangle represents wind speeds of 50 kt, a full barb
10 kt, and a half bar is 5 kt. The wind ags are also color-coded
based on the wind speed (blue < 12.5 kt, green < 27.5 kt,
yellowgreen < 42.5 kt, orange <72.5 kt, red < 97.5 kt, and dark
red  97.5 kt). Windgrams can be useful when looking for wind
shifts and wind speed jets aloft, which are important for pollutant
transport and dispersion.
5.3. Wind roses
Wind roses (Fig. 4) show the frequency of wind direction and
speed at a particular height at a single location for a given time
period on a 16-point compass and are an important part of
analyzing the past or forecast wind directions and speeds. In
addition, rings are plotted that represent the accumulated wind
direction frequency for seven wind speed classes identied by the
colorbar. A time-series graph of wind direction, color-coded by
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228 215

Fig. 4. HRRR 18h forecast wind rose for location 30.74N, 93.38 W valid beginning at 1500 UTC on December 5, 2016.

wind speed classes, is plotted below the wind rose. Air quality and
emergency responders can use this product to determine the
favored wind directions and speeds with respect to a release of
pollutants or harmful materials into the atmosphere and also give a
measure of the variability of the winds with time as some locations
tend to have favored wind directions based on local topography.
and can be animated to show the change of these parameters over
time at all levels of the meteorological model. Soundings can pro-
vide information on the overall stability of the atmosphere as well
as locations of temperature inversions aloft that can limit vertical
mixing of pollutants. Shallow surface inversions can increase the air
concentrations of harmful pollutants released near the surface,
which can be detrimental to human health.

5.4. Vertical soundings

5.5. Atmospheric stability time-series
Vertical soundings (proles) of wind speed and direction (wind
ags), temperature (red line), and dew point temperature (green The atmospheric stability time-series program will plot a time-
line) are presented as Skew-T Log-P diagrams (AWS, 1979, Fig. 5) series (Fig. 6) of calculated boundary layer depth (red line; m AGL),
216 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228
Fig. 5. HRRR forecast sounding for location 30.74N, 93.38 W valid at 1800 UTC on December 5, 2016.
vertical mixing coefcient (blue line; m2/s), and Pasquill Stability
Class (Draxler, 1979) using the chosen meteorological data. The
mathematical routine to calculate these parameters is the same one
used by the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model (Draxler,
1999) and therefore can be used to view the atmospheric stability
expected in a HYSPLIT simulation at a particular location.
5.6. 2D maps
The 2D (two-dimensional) maps programs will contour user-
selected meteorological elds and plot them on a map (Fig. 7)
with options for color-lled, color lines, map size and centered
location. Wind information can be plotted as contours of u- and v-
wind components, wind barbs or wind vectors. An option is also
provided to overlay two elds on the map. In addition, READY has
pre-generated maps (Forecast Model Animations, Fig. 8) over the
United States and Europe for several forecast data sets and elds
that are updated each time the meteorological data are updated
(forecast cycle) and include animations of the contoured elds.
5.7. NWS text products
The READY server receives current textual meteorological
products such as surface and upper-air observations and forecasts
from the NWS using the LDM communication software and makes
them available to users through a series of menu driven products
under the Current Meteorology section of READY. Users can view
the raw texts of observations and forecasts or view decoded
products such as observed soundings and surface and upper-air
maps. To make it easier to access products specic to a state, a
state weather web page is available within READY that has links to
many of the text products for each state as well as a surface weather
map showing current observations in a station model format.
5.8. Data extraction
Users interested in downloading HYSPLIT-compatible meteo-
rological data have the option of using the PC HYSPLIT GUI to
automatically transfer the needed les using the File Transfer
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228 217

Fig. 6. HRRR 18h forecast stability plot for location 30.74N, 93.38 W valid beginning at 1500 UTC on December 5, 2016. The blue line represents the scaled (  10) vertical mixing
coefcient (m2/s) and the red line is the model boundary layer depth (m AGL). The Pasquill Stability Class as dened by Draxler (1979) is shown near the top. (For interpretation of
the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Protocol (FTP) or can manually download the les from the ARL FTP
server (ftp://arlftp.arlhq.noaa.gov/). However, some of the more
recent high resolution data sets are becoming very large, take
longer to transfer, and require a larger local storage disk to store
them. In most cases, HYSPLIT users only need a limited subset of the
full data set in order to run the model over their area of interest. For
this reason, READY provides users with an interface to perform an
area extraction, time extraction, or both area and time extraction of
a meteorological data le. Users can select an area by using a mouse
to draw a box on a map of the meteorological domain to create the
extraction area or enter the bounding coordinates. A web link will
be created to a zipped le containing the extracted binary meteo-
rological data le. This capability is available for both forecast and
archived data sets.
6. HYSPLIT model products
READY provides a quasi-operational1 portal for users to run
the HYSPLIT atmospheric transport and dispersion model and tools
to interpret the results. Typical user applications include atmo-
spheric emergencies or exercises associated with the release of
hazardous materials, smoke from large res, poor air quality, ashfall
from volcanic eruptions, and various climatological studies.
Users of the READY web site can produce air parcel trajectories
that move a single Lagrangian particle according to the mean wind
(not including turbulence) dened by operational meteorological
1
Site is not maintained 24  7.
218 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Fig. 7. HRRR forecast map of 1-hr accumulated precipitation valid at 1800 UTC on December 5, 2016.

Fig. 8. HRRR reectivity forecast valid at 1000 UTC on December 5, 2016.

 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228
Fig. 9. Three forward 24h forecast trajectories from a starting location of 30.74N, 83.38 W at 500, 1500 and 3000 m above ground level using the NAM meteorological data.
models run at NCEP on global and regional scale grids (forecast and
archived). Users can also model the dispersal of pollutants with
HYSPLIT by tracking thousands of Lagrangian particles across a
model domain that includes turbulence, as opposed to one particle
as is the case for a single trajectory. In this way, three-dimensional
pollutant plumes can be produced from such sources as wildres,
chemical or radiological releases, or volcanic eruptions.
Over the last four years (2012e2016) between 700,000 and
1,000,000 HYSPLIT simulations have been processed through
READY with the majority being trajectories. In addition, many
research studies have been published using the results produced by
HYSPLIT on the READY web site (Stein et al., 2015).
6.1. Trajectory products
Currently, READY users can produce four types of air parcel
219
trajectory products. The rst, and most popular, is a simple plot of
up to three trajectories at user selected starting heights from one to
three source locations (Fig. 9). As mentioned in Stein et al. (2015),
many research studies have used HYSPLIT trajectories to determine
possible source regions contributing to measurements of selected
pollutants or to determine air masses that may have affected a
location under study.
A second trajectory application available in READY is a matrix of
trajectories (Fig. 10), whereby the user denes a grid of source lo-
cations within the meteorological domain to initiate simultaneous
trajectories. The result is a grid of trajectories that can provide a
measure of the transport directions within the domain without
having to run many single trajectories.
A trajectory ensemble (Fig. 11) is the third application available
and can be quite useful in determining the possible uncertainty of
an individual trajectory to the meteorological data surrounding the
220 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Fig. 10. Forward 24h trajectory matrix forecast at 1500 m above ground level using the NAM meteorological data.

source location. The ensemble option will start multiple trajectories
with each member of the trajectory ensemble calculated by off-
setting the meteorological data by a xed grid factor (one meteo-
rological grid point in the horizontal and 0.01 sigma units in the
vertical is the default). This results in 27 members (trajectories) for
all-possible offsets in X, Y, and Z. If all the trajectories follow a
similar path then the user can have condence that any one tra-
jectory represents the mean ow. However, if the trajectories
diverge signicantly, as is the case in Fig. 11, then the user needs to
consider using the dispersion model to calculate many particle
trajectories with turbulent mixing (dispersion) to best represent
the pollutant transport.
Finally, the trajectory frequency option (Fig. 12) will start a
trajectory from a single location and height every 3, 6, or 12 h for
the duration of the meteorology le, and then sum the number of
times the trajectories pass over each grid cell on a user-dened grid.
The program normalizes the results by either the total number of
trajectories (only counted once) or by all endpoints passing through
a grid cell. The user can view four different plots for calculations
that allow a trajectory to intersect a grid cell once or multiple times
(with residence time options 1, 2 or 3). These plots can be useful in
determining the upwind source areas that may have impacted the
air concentrations measured at a starting location.
All of these trajectory products can be calculated with archived
or forecast meteorology. In addition to the four standard trajectory
products, READY also provides two other specialized trajectory
applications: trajectory optimization for balloon ights and pre-
computed U.S. trajectory forecasts.
A trajectory optimization routine was developed at ARL (Draxler,
1996) to select optimum ight altitudes for a controlled balloon to
get to a desired location downwind based upon forecast meteoro-
logical elds. The idea is to allow a balloonist to adjust the ight
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228 221

Fig. 11. Forward 24h forecast trajectory 27 member meteorological ensemble from a starting location of 30.74N, 83.38 W at 1500 m above ground level using the NAM meteo-
rological data.

altitude at select locations to maintain the desired ight path to an
endpoint location or to avoid restricted air space. This is done by
visualizing all the potential ow combinations from up to three
different starting heights at regular intervals along the ight path.
The user denes up to three starting heights and the time interval
(hours) at which new trajectories will be started from the location
of the previous endpoints and HYSPLIT will calculate an increasing
number of trajectories as the trajectories split at regular time in-
tervals (Fig. 13a). Once complete, the optimization routine is used
by the balloonist to select the best combination of trajectory splits
(and heights) to move from the initial location to the nal location
selected by the balloonist (Fig. 13b).
In addition to calculating trajectories for a user-selected loca-
tion, pre-computed 18h forecast forward and 36 h backward tra-
jectories are produced for select locations in the U.S. with the
objective to support air quality forecasting activities using forecast
atmospheric ow patterns. Trajectories (Fig. 14) are available for
four starting heights above ground (10, 500, 1000, and 1500 m AGL)
based on the latest NAM forecast from NCEP.
6.2. Dispersion products
READY provides users with a rather simple interface to run the
complex HYSPLIT dispersion model using forecast or archived data
(user registration is required to calculate forecast dispersion
products or to download a PC/Mac/LINUX version of the model that
will allow use of forecast meteorology).
The READY web interface was designed to allow both expert and
non-expert users to congure and run HYSPLIT quickly with a
minimal number of entries. The dispersion model can be run with
the same forecast and archived meteorological data as the trajec-
tory model for durations up to 84 h forward or backward,
222 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Fig. 12. Backward 72h trajectory frequency plot from a starting location of 30.74N, 83.38 W at 500 m above ground level using the NAM meteorological data. In this case the
contours represent the percentage of the number of trajectory endpoints in each grid cell divided by the total number of trajectories calculated.

depending on the meteorological data set chosen.
The user enters information on the release location, height,
quantity, and duration, as well as the output pollutant concentra-
tion averaging or deposition summing time interval, height, and
duration, and output display parameters prior to submitting the
model. Users can choose between ve types of releases: unknown
material (< 24h duration), unknown material (long duration),
prescribed burn, volcanic ash, and volcanic ash (24 h, 5 levels).
Specialized users, such as NWS weather forecast ofces and other
U.S. federal agencies, also have options to simulate chemical and
radiological releases through READY using a series of input pages
requesting information on the release characteristics. Model results
are presented in units that are helpful for emergency managers and
decision makers such as chemical levels of concern and radiological
doses.
Note that downwind concentrations are proportional to the
release quantity. If the release quantity is not known and cannot be
estimated, one mass-unit is released in the model and the resulting
maps are plots of dispersion factors.
Dispersion model products include maps (gif, pdf, PostScript,
kmz) of air concentrations, deposition, radiological doses (special-
ized users), time of arrival (TOA), and particle positions, all of which
can be animated when multiple time periods are produced. A
recent capability will plot the dispersion model results on an
interactive GIS map based on the MapQuest Application Program
Interface (API), which allows users to zoom in on the plumes and
overlay roads, satellite images, and other features that may be
important to emergency responders (Fig. 15).
HYSPLIT volcanic ash transport and dispersion from any vol-
cano, using forecast or archived meteorology, can be simulated in
READY. Many of the complex model inputs are precongured with
default values, but can be changed by experienced users. In addi-
tion to running the model, pre-calculated quantitative ash forecasts
for hypothetical eruptions are available for select volcanoes for two
types of simulations: a deterministic and a 27-member meteoro-
logical ensemble simulation. Fig. 16 shows the deterministic fore-
cast concentration for a hypothetical eruption of the Bogoslof
volcano in Alaska. Finally, 6h forecast trajectory maps for Alaskan
volcanoes are available for several heights above the volcano
summit using the GFS forecast model to provide a quick look at
transport conditions above many volcanoes in Alaska.
In all of these calculations, a single deterministic dispersion
simulation does not provide the end user with any indication of the
uncertainty of the model results and for this reason, over the past
few years, research has focused on providing some measure of
uncertainty by using an array of ensemble tools (Stein et al., 2015).
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228 223

Fig. 13. (a)In the rst step of calculating the best trajectory for balloon optimization, a series of trajectories are calculated using a splitting technique at regular intervals whereby
new trajectories are started at each trajectory endpoint at the heights initially dened by the user. In this case a new trajectory was started every 12 h from an initial location near
Phoenix, Arizona.
(b)In the second step, the user selects a location from the map (star over Maine) that the program will use to locate the best trajectory to follow to get to that location.

However, the construction of a suitable dispersion ensemble that the atmosphere, the source location could be moved by ARL to the
provides accurate results, properly quanties uncertainty, and release location.
makes an efcient use of computational resources is still a matter of
current research (e.g. Solazzo and Galmarini, 2014). Since NCEP
6.3. HYSPLIT support & training
now produces the Short Range Ensemble Forecast (SREF) meteo-
rological ensemble routinely, it was an obvious choice for testing
Given the many possible applications HYSPLIT can model and
this type of modeling. Consequently, an experimental 26 member
the various complexities in conguring the model, it is important to
HYSPLIT ensemble based on the 26 member SREF simulation is run
provide complete documentation, training materials, and support
four times per day for a hypothetical release. Products include maps
to users of the model. To that end, READY provides links to the
of the mean concentration, number of members with concentration
HYSPLIT User's Guide, publications, and various training materials.
greater than zero (Fig. 17), variance, coefcient of variation, prob-
In addition, each year a HYSPLIT workshop is given to a small
ability of exceedance thresholds, and concentrations of various
number of HYSPLIT users, in-person, and to an ever increasing
percentiles. In the event of a major release of harmful materials to
number of remote users. The materials used during the workshop
224 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228

Fig. 13. (continued).

are made available within READY so that anyone can work at their
own pace using the downloaded HYSPLIT model. If there are further
questions users have about the training materials or any questions
regarding HYSPLIT, ARL created a HYSPLIT Forum (https://
hysplitbbs.arl.noaa.gov) within READY that allows users to submit
questions or browse previous questions and answers. HYSPLIT
developers, as well as the user community, can interact through the
Forum to help solve problems that other users might have and to
discuss possible future research activities or unique cases related to
HYSPLIT.
7. DATEM atmospheric Tracer Verication Archive
The availability of meteorological re-analysis archives, at several
international meteorological centers, provides an opportunity to
link high quality modern meteorological data with the data from
many older long-range atmospheric tracer experiments. The Data
Archive of Tracer Experiments and Meteorology (DATEM; http://
www.ready.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT_datem.php) was developed at ARL
and made available within READY to provide access to experi-
mental data, relevant reports, meteorological data, statistical
analysis, and display software, all in a common format for PC, Mac
or LINUX applications. This database allows the atmospheric
transport modeling community to conduct various verication and
sensitivity studies and compare model results with each other on a
common basis on scales currently ranging from 10's to 1000's of
km. READY users also have the ability to run the on-line HYSPLIT
model on several of these experiments and compare the results
with the measured tracer data to understand how the results
change when a HYSPLIT model parameter is changed, thereby
getting a better understanding of the sensitivity of each model
parameter. Users of the DATEM archive are encouraged to share any
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228
Fig. 14. Routinely produced forecast trajectories for select location in the southeastern U.S. originating at 1500 m AGL.
additional analysis software that they develop and prepare and
submit additional experimental data to the archive.
8. Future developments
Since 1997, READY has been continually expanding by adding
new capabilities and meteorological data sets to model the atmo-
spheric transport of pollutants and to display meteorological data
helpful to atmospheric scientists. The following products are
currently planned to be added to READY in the near future.
8.1. HYSPLIT SREF simulations for user-selected locations
As mentioned in section 6.2, HYSPLIT has been congured to run
with the SREF ensemble forecast data for a xed location to
demonstrate the use of these simulations in providing a measure of
uncertainty to the dispersion forecast. Once testing is complete on
the current experimental HYSPLIT SREF forecasting system, HYS-
PLIT SREF will be made available to READY users to run for any
location within the SREF model domain. As this is an exciting new
225
area for dispersion modeling, additional graphics and training
materials will likely be added to READY.
8.2. HYSPLIT with WRF data
Emergency responders are nding atmospheric transport and
dispersion models to be a valuable tool in predicting the movement
of harmful pollutants especially for longer duration situations that
occur during a chemical release or forest re. However, meteo-
rology at the small scales needed to resolve the plume near the
source are not always readily available when required during an
emergency. ARL plans to develop a system within READY to allow
specialized users to run the WRF model for a short duration at a
very small horizontal resolution (<4 km) and then use the output to
run HYSPLIT. The user will also be able to continue the simulation
with a regional meteorological model (NAM, HRRR, etc.) once the
plume moves off the WRF model domain. When complete, this new
product will provide a unique capability to the emergency response
community.
226 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228
Fig. 15. HYSPLIT dispersion model results for a prescribed burn displayed on an interactive GIS map based on the MapQuest Application Program Interface (API) that allows
zooming and overlays of other important features.
8.3. 30-year WRF archive
WRF is currently being run at ARL for a 30-year period (1980 e
present; Ngan and Stein, 2017) using the North American Regional
Reanalysis (NARR) for initial and boundary conditions (IC/BC). The
WRF archive will have a horizontal resolution of 27 km and 33
vertical layers. When complete, the archive will be made available
within READY for HYSPLIT, DATEM, and meteorological data display
programs. In addition, this archive is planned to be used as IC/BC for
the short duration user-generated WRF simulation mentioned in
section 8.2.
8.4. Inline WRF-HYSPLIT coupling
HYSPLIT was originally designed to run ofine utilizing meteo-
rological data such as provided by the Advanced Research WRF
(WRF-ARW) model. A new modeling framework has been devel-
oped at ARL (Ngan et al., 2015) that couples HYSPLIT in-line with
WRF-ARW to take advantage of the higher temporal frequency of
the meteorological variables produced by the meteorological
model, as well as using WRF-ARW's vertical coordinate scheme.
The inline coupling approach is a more consistent depiction of the
state of the atmosphere available to the dispersion model through
the elimination of the need to interpolate the meteorological elds
temporally and vertically.
READY will soon provide specialized users (initially) with the
capability to run the inline WRF-HYSPLIT model for short term
simulations and, based on the performance and resources needed,
may be made available to other READY users.
8.5. Higher-resolution global model data
Finally, a higher spatial resolution (0.25
; 27.8 km) GFS forecast
data set will be added to READY that will contain forecast data
every 3 h out to 192 h on sigma-pressure hybrid vertical
coordinates.
9. Summary
READY was initially developed to bring together, in a web-based
system, the many computer tools available at ARL for displaying
meteorological data and atmospheric transport model products.
Users can access many of the products available to ARL researchers
for analyzing forecast meteorological data as well as run the HYS-
PLIT transport and dispersion model, which makes READY, avail-
able to the public via the web, unique.
Meteorological model graphical products include meteoro-
grams, windgrams, wind roses, vertical soundings, time-series
plots of atmospheric stability, and the more traditional weather
maps such as precipitation and mean sea level pressure. Text for-
mats of some of these products such as soundings and meteoro-
grams are available.
A variety of HYSPLIT trajectory and dispersion products are
available. Trajectory products include individual, matrix, ensemble,
frequency, balloon ight optimization, and air quality. Dispersion
products include generic, as well as prescribed burn, volcanic ash,
or chemical (specialized users). Ensemble dispersion products,
which provide some information on uncertainty are also available.
Dispersion products may be viewed as Adobe pdf, Google Earth
 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228 227

Fig. 16. Routine HYSPLIT dispersion simulations from hypothetical volcanic ash eruptions are produced from a deterministic (shown) and HYSPLIT meteorological ensemble (not
shown) of the Global Forecast System (GFS) model. This plot shows the spatial distribution of the ash concentration from Bogoslof volcano in Alaska.

Fig. 17. Routine HYSPLIT dispersion simulations are produced using the Short-Range Ensemble Forecasting System (SREF) 26-member ensemble data. This plot shows the spatial
distribution of the number of members producing concentrations greater than zero.
228 G. Rolph et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 95 (2017) 210e228
kmz, or other formats. Animations are available for multi-time
period simulations.
READY also has sections on dispersion model evaluation veri-
cation and support and training. Future capabilities will enhance
the products available to emergency responders including the
inline HYSPLIT-WRF coupling, WRF meteorological forecast data
creation and higher resolution global model data.
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