ATDD began as a Weather Bureau Special Projects research office established in 1948 under Atomic Energy Commission sponsorship in Oak Ridge, TN, and still serves as a source of meteorological information and expertise for the U. S. Department of Energy and its contractors in Oak Ridge. However, ATDD's main function is to perform air quality-related research directed toward issues of national and global importance.
Emphasis is on the lower atmosphere.
ATDD has a permanent staff of 26, including fifteen scientists, three engineers, and four scientific and technical support staff. We frequently host graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and international visitors for varying intervals. ATDD is located at 456 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with a permanent research station about five miles away, within Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Walker Branch Watershed forested experimental area.