User's manual for DWNWND: an interactive Gaussian plume atmospheric transport model with eight dispersion parameter options

The most commonly used approach for estimating the atmospheric concentration and deposition of material downwind from its point of release is the Gaussian plume atmospheric dispersion model. Two of the critical parameters in this model are sigma/sub y/ and sigma/sub z/, the horizontal and vertical dispersion parameters, respectively. A number of different sets of values for sigma/sub y/ and sigma/sub z/ have been determined empirically for different release heights and meteorological and terrain conditions. The computer code DWNWND, described in this report, is an interactive implementation of the Gaussian plume model. This code allows the user to specify any one of eight different sets of the empirically determined dispersion paramters. Using the selected dispersion paramters, ground-level normalized exposure estimates are made at any specified downwind distance. Computed values may be corrected for plume depletion due to deposition and for plume settling due to gravitational fall. With this interactive code, the user chooses values for ten parameters which define the source, the dispersion and deposition process, and the sampling point. DWNWND is written in FORTRAN for execution on a PDP-10 computer, requiring less than one second of central processor unit time for each simulation