Canada plans to acquire meteorological tracking equipment to plot the course of dangerous chemical or biological weapons that could be released into the air in a terrorist attack, the National Post reported today.

The equipment, which could cost several hundred thousand dollars, will assist with evacuations, according to Canadian officials.

“It would be portable so we could deploy this if there was any kind of event,” said Dave Dockendorff, spokesman for the Meteorological Service of Canada.  “You can have an idea where this (biological or chemical agent) is going to go, where it’s going to come down.  Further downstream, should we be evacuating from here or there?  For instance, if the wind is from the west … there is no point in evacuating people who are west of the incident,” he added.

Canadian officials plan to buy ground instruments, computers and devices that are carried on weather balloons from the U.S. company Vaisala.  The data would not detect the chemical or biological weapon in the air, but would give officials air temperature, air pressure, humidity and wind speed and allow them to plot the course of the dangerous agents.

Funding for the effort has been approved and officials plan to base the equipment in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, the Post reported.

Dispersing chemical agents in the air, however, presents a major challenge to terrorists, some experts noted.

“In an outdoor attack such as this, 90 percent of the (chemical) agent is likely to dissipate before ever reaching its target,” according to the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington (Tom Blackwell, National Post, Jan. 8).

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