Mark Eltgroth LLC

Development of the CHARM Software began in 1981. At that time, personal computers were very limited in their capabilities. Because of the computer memory and speed restrictions, the first versions of CHARM contained a puff model for advection and dispersion calculations. A puff model simulates a continuous release as a series of discreet puffs. The number of puffs was restricted. As computers became more capable, so did the model. Initially, the model was a DOS program. In 1990, the model was moved to the Windows environment. Throughout its development, continuous improvements and enhancements have been added as users requested them. Around the year 2000 a hybrid version of the model was made to try to simulate the effects of complex terrain on the wind field and dispersion of a release. It didn’t take long to discover that a hybrid was not the approach to take.