Source term estimation method using long-range inverse atmospheric transport simulation

A new method to estimate the location and the relative rate of an accidenta l atmospheric release from the input of environmental monitoring data such as concentration of contaminants has been developed and its performance has been verified using the long-range atmospheric tracer experiment data. Thi s method employs an inverse transport calculation of a mass of marker parti cles released from monitoring points. The source terms are evaluated from t he statistics on the position of marker particles. The objective domain is about 1, 000km or more from a release point. The verification showed that t he location and the rate of release were fairly estimated by the method. It was also pointed out that the combination of this method with a normal atm ospheric dispersion simulation would be effective.