ALOHA Chemical Dispersion and Threat Zone Estimation Tool
ALOHA is developed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
What is ALOHA for?
ALOHA (Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) is a tool that helps emergency responders and planners to help to estimate how the chemical gas cloud will disperse.
It is designed to produce reasonable results quickly enough to be of use for the responders during a real emergency. Therefore, the calculations represent a compromise between accuracy and speed.
How does ALOHA work?
A series of dialog boxes prompt users to enter information about the scenario (e.g., chemical, weather conditions, and the type of release). Detailed help is provided with each dialog box. The scenario information and calculation results are summarized in a printable, text-only window. Results can be displayed in a variety of graphical outputs.
Pros
No registration needed
Available as a mobile application and as a desktop program
Maintained and updated regularly
Cons
Geographic information and locations that can be selected cover only areas and cities in the USA
Can be challenging to use
Requires a lot of information before it can provide an estimation