Award Data

The complexity of Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion (ATD) modeling requires physically consistent weather data evolving in both space and time. Spatially and/or temporally averaged data found in climatological products is not suitable for ATD modeling. The proposed solution for providing "typical day" meteorological data couples innovative search techniques applied to long-range historical arch ...

Active interrogation holds the most promise for detecting heavily shielded materials at a distance. This effort will use pulsed neutron excitation of fission reactions in the target being inspected in conjunction with an imaging detector. Special nuclear material (SNM) that is present will undergo fission reactions that generate prompt and delayed neutrons which will be emitted by the target. Th ...

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear missiles and “dirty bombs” are a serious threat in the world today and especially to the well-being of the United States. Preventing the spread of these nuclear weapons has reached a state of heightened urgency in recent years, more so since the events on September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. The presence of nuclear weapons can ...

High-resolution scintillation crystals and crystal arrays are important components of current and future handheld and arrayed detectors (used for DOD applications) and scintillation spectrometers (routinely used in high energy physics research, medical imaging, diffraction, homeland security, nuclear waste clean-up, nuclear treaty verification and safeguards, and geological exploration). Unfortun ...

Recent advances in scintillator materials research have resulted in the development of lanthanum halides detectors. These detectors offer improved energy resolution, faster emission and excellent temperature dependency and linearity characteristics. However, the lanthanum halides crystals have not yet been grown to preferred large sizes. Moreover, this material possesses a fatal drawback of being ...

The complexity of Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion (ATD) modeling requires physically consistent weather data evolving in both space and time. Spatially and/or temporally averaged data found in climatological products is not suitable for ATD modeling. The proposed solution for providing “typical day” meteorological data couples innovative search techniques applied to long-range historical ...

Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. proposes to develop a prototype threat-reduction system for the dispersion of a weapons-of-mass destruction warhead in the upper atmosphere. Our system will extend current DTRA atmospheric transport and dispersion capabilities into the 20-120 km altitude region. This will be accomplished using a combination of a zonally-averaged transport model of the s ...

Proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons is a serious threat in the world today. Prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons has reached a state of heightened urgency in recent years, especially since the events on September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. Gamma ray spectrometers are an important tool in checking the proliferation of the nuclear weapons. Important re ...

U.S. forces working in low-level radiation environments have unsatisfactory choices for monitoring radiation exposure. A solid-state photomultiplier (SSPM) uses an array of silicon based avalanche photodiodes (APD) to collect light and produce a signal proportional to the amount of light collected. The ability to produce arrays of APD’s in a CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) envir ...

The proposed muti-mode imaging system will allow a combination of X-ray Backscatter imaging (proven successful in finding IEDs in AS&E's Z Backscatter Van) and other sensor modalities, such as vapor/trace detection and video, to be mounted on a robotic platform(the iRobot R-Gator) such that the system can be quickly moved into location to examine a potential threat, including WMD dispersal devices ...