Comments on a recent article on meteorological and intelligence evidence of long-distance transit of chemical weapons fallout from bombing early in the 1991 Persian Gulf War

摘要

The recent article by Tuite and Haley [1] aims to provide evidence of long-distance transport of chemical weapons fallout from bombings during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In brief, the authors suggest the following series of events: (1) Coalition bombings on the night of 18-19 January 1991 destroyed the Iraqi chemical warfare agent infrastructure. (2) The bombings led to chemical warfare agents being lofted by buoyant plumes, penetrating the nocturnal atmospheric boundary layer into the residual layer aloft [2]. (3) The nocturnal jet in the residual layer rapidly transported the plumes over a long distance, along the wind direction as suggested by the large-scale pressure gradient. (4) After sunrise, solar heating caused the daytime mixed layer to reestablish and the chemical warfare agents to mix down to the surface, leading to chemical agent alarms at US and Coalition troop locations more than 500 km away from the bombing sites.