NAME atmospheric pollution dispersion model[1][2][3][4] was first developed by the UK's Met Office in 1986 after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, which demonstrated the need for a method that could predict the spread and deposition of radioactive gases or material released into the atmosphere.
The acronym, NAME, originally stood for the Nuclear Accident ModEl.[5] The Met Office has revised and upgraded the model over the years and it is now used as a general purpose dispersion model. The current version is known as the NAME III (Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment) model. NAME III is currently[when?] operational and it will probably completely replace the original NAME model sometimes in 2006.