Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Project seeks to use airport radar to detect terror attacks

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 03:43:42 -0400

Project seeks to use airport radar to detect terror attacks

By Theo Emery

The Associated Press

Mark Weber, a group leader at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
Lincoln Laboratory, poses at the facility in
Lexington, Mass., on April 19. Weber is studying how to use Doppler
radar data as an early warning system to detect chemical and biological
threats.

LEXINGTON, Mass. — For the U.S. Army, Doppler radar isn’t just about
more precise weather mapping and detecting wind shear. It also holds
promise as an early warning system for airborne biological and chemical
attacks.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are working with the
Army to develop a detection system that would involve modifying federal
radar stations in nearly three dozen cities.  Congress has so far
allocated $15 million to develop the so-called Homeland Defense Chemical
Biological Umbrella, with a handful of stations expected to be
functional by year’s end.  The threat of airborne releases of chemical
or biological agents in the skies, once grist for pulp spy novels, took
on new urgency after the Sept. 11 attacks. Investigators found evidence
that groups of men — which may have included one of the hijackers — made
repeated inquiries about crop-duster planes in Florida, possibly to
disperse chemical agents like the nerve agent VX, or biological poisons
such as anthrax.

Army project leader Arne Johnson said he’s confident the system will
work. He declined to discuss detailed results of tests, which began last
year. ‘‘They show the radar does have the capability of this type of
event detection,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re in midstream here as far as the development cycle, so I honestly
don’t know what the end system will look like. We’re taking the first
step here,’’ said team leader Mark E. Weber, who works at Lincoln
Laboratory, a high-security MIT campus in Lexington that performs
defense research for the Pentagon.

The project will eventually use 45 Federal Aviation Administration radar
sites around the country that are located near airports to detect wind
shear — the sudden, dangerous air currents that can dash an airplane to
the ground as it takes off or lands. The FAA’s Terminal Doppler Weather
Radar system is separate from the National Weather Service and
commercial Doppler radar.

The Army won’t discuss how the radar will identify potential attacks,
except to say that the computer programs will be able to differentiate
between typical air and weather patterns around aircraft, and a chemical
or biological event. Once a release is detected, the cloud’s movement
can be tracked to help local emergency personnel respond and try to
protect people in the vicinity.

Some experts have concerns, however, about whether the umbrella makes
economic sense —and whether it will be able to accurately warn against
deadly agents in the air.  Dr. Tara O’Toole, a physician and
bioterrorism expert who heads the Center for Biosecurity at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, questioned whether the
undertaking was technically possible. Even if it works, she said, it
might be hard to distinguish between harmless dust and pollution and
something more sinister.
‘‘You get a lot of false positives if you’re monitoring the area 24
hours a day, seven days a week,’’ she said. ‘‘Each of those false alarms
uses up a lot of resources.’’ Retired Army Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, a
National Security Agency director, served on a National Academies
committee that released a report last year on tracking hazardous
material releases.
He said the radar project may have promise, but it is tackling an
‘‘extremely complex’’ problem.

‘‘Proving that this is technically feasible is the first step. Whether
it’s financially practical is another question,’’ he said.
The committee’s chairman, Robert J. Serafin, a radar specialist and
director emeritus of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said
radar could play a role in detecting an airborne biological or chemical
terror attack, but he’s not convinced it can be relied upon.  ‘‘I think
it’s the kind of work that should be pursued and evaluated, but I don’t
think that any single observation system like radar in a city will
provide the kind of protection that people would want,’’ he said.

The Army has already tested whether Doppler radar — which detects the
movement, speed and direction of objects rather than simply pinpointing
their location as conventional radar does — could detect substances
released into the air.

Last year, a plane sprayed harmless grain alcohol, clay dust and a mix
of water and polyethylene glycol — an ingredient in lotions and mascara
— over Oklahoma fields. Final tests that would closely mimic an actual
release are planned for early May. A demonstration that will be
evaluated by observers is tentatively set for late May or June.  Johnson
said the Army hopes to have five Doppler locations scanning the skies by
year’s end, with other places added later. He stressed that the system
is just part of a much broader strategy.

http://www.citizenonline.net/citizen/archive/article541DD7F660374AC991E3814F267B40A9.asp

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