Supplementary Material for: Meteorological and Intelligence Evidence of Long-Distance Transit of Chemical Weapons Fallout from Bombing Early in the 1991 Persian Gulf War

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Coalition bombings on the night of 18–19 January 1991, early in the Gulf War, targeted the Iraqi chemical weapons infrastructure. On 19 January 1991, nerve agent alarms sounded within Coalition positions hundreds of kilometers to the south, and the trace presence of sarin vapor was identified by multiple technologies. Considering only surface dispersion of plumes from explosions, officials concluded that the absence of casualties around bombed sites precluded long-distance transit of debris to US troop positions to explain the alarms and detections. Consequently, they were discounted as false positives, and low-level nerve agent exposure early in the air war was disregarded in epidemiologic investigations of chronic illnesses. <b><i>Intelligence Data:</i></b> Newly assembled evidence indicates that plumes from those nighttime bombings of Iraqi chemical facilities would have traversed the stable nocturnal boundary layer and penetrated the residual layer where they would be susceptible to rapid transit by supergeostrophic winds. This explanation is supported by plume height predictions, available weather charts, weather satellite images showing transit of a hot air mass, effects of solar mixing of atmospheric layers, and observations of a stationary weather front and thermal inversion in the region. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Current evidence supports long-distance transit. Epidemiologic studies of chronic postwar illness should be reassessed using veterans’ reports of hearing nerve agent alarms as the measure of exposure.

**背景：** 1991年海湾战争初期，1月18日至19日夜的联军空袭针对伊拉克化学武器基础设施展开。1991年1月19日，向南数百公里外的联军阵地响起神经毒剂（nerve agent）警报，多种技术手段检测到沙林（sarin）蒸气的痕量存在。仅考虑爆炸羽流的地表扩散时，官员们推断，轰炸地点周边无人员伤亡，说明碎片无法长距离传输至美军阵地，无法解释此次警报与检测结果，因此将其判定为假阳性，且空战初期的低水平神经毒剂暴露在慢性病流行病学调查中被完全忽略。

**情报数据：** 新整合的证据表明，此次夜间轰炸伊拉克化学设施产生的羽流会穿越稳定的夜间边界层，并渗入残余层（residual layer），在此处将受到超地转风（supergeostrophic winds）的快速输送。该解释得到了羽流高度预测、现有气象图表、显示热气团移动的气象卫星图像、大气层太阳混合效应，以及该区域静止锋面与逆温（thermal inversion）观测结果的支持。

**结论：** 现有证据支持长距离传输的结论。应采用退伍军人听到神经毒剂警报的报告作为暴露衡量标准，重新评估战后慢性病的流行病学研究。