Calculating Wind Dispersion Sources

Calculates distance from protected areas to population centers along wind trajectories and creates table linking protected areas to city data via wind trajectories.

Note: This code was built using ESRI ArcGIS version 10.6.1

Data Sources

• Wind trajectory data: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Air Resources Laboratory’s Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) using the GDAS one-degree Gridded Meteorological Archive Data. link to data
• City data: Center for International Earth Science Information Network’s (CIESIN) Gridded Population of the World link to data
• Protected areas data: United States Geological Service (USGS) Protected Areas Database (PAD) - GAP-1 and GAP-2 levels. link to data

Code associated with:

Brahney, J., M. Hallerud, E. Heim, M. Hahnenberger, and S. Sukumaran. 2020. Plastic Rain in Protected Areas of the United States. Science 368 (6496): 1257-1260. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz5819