NOAA’s National Ocean Service • Office of Response and Restoration
CAMEO® Software Suite
P
lacing accurate, timely The CAMEO suite is developed jointly by the National
information in the hands of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the
decision makers is vital to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
safe, effective response to a
CAMEO Data Manager
chemical incident.
Keep track of information related to emergency
Designed to assist first responders and response and planning for hazardous chemicals
emergency planners get to key using CAMEO Data Manager’s seven database
information quickly, the CAMEO (Computer-Aided modules: Facilities, Contacts, Chemical Inventory,
Management of Emergency Operations) software suite has Incidents, Special Locations, Routes, and Resources.
four core programs: CAMEO Data Manager, CAMEO
Chemicals, ALOHA®, and MARPLOT®.
How the CAMEO Software Suite Works
All programs work interactively to display critical information
in an easy-to-understand manner. You can use the suite to:
• Manage data for emergency planning and response
(including facilities, chemical inventories, contact
information, and response resources).
• Access chemical property and response information.
• Find out how chemicals could react if they mixed.
• Estimate threat zones for hazardous chemical
releases, including toxic gas clouds, fires, and A facility record with the location data section shown. A map view
displays the facility location based on the data you enter; other
explosions.
nearby CAMEO Data Manager records can also be shown.
• Map threat zones and other locations of interest.
For example, you can store information about the chemical
facilities in your community, including contact information
and chemical inventories. Once you’ve entered your data
into CAMEO Data Manager, you can use the other suite
programs to:
• Link the records about facilities and other locations to
symbols on a MARPLOT map. This will allow you to
quickly get to your data from CAMEO Data Manager or
MARPLOT.
• Find out more about the chemicals in inventory by
looking in CAMEO Chemicals to get response
recommendations and physical properties, or use
ALOHA to predict the threat zones (if the inventory
chemicals were released).
The chemical datasheet for chlorine includes response
This program is especially useful for data management
recommendations and physical properties.
tasks required under the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
CAMEO Chemicals and Response Information MARPLOT and GIS-Compatible Output
CAMEO Chemicals has an extensive chemical With MARPLOT’s easy-to-use GIS interface, you
database with critical response information for can add your own objects to maps, as well as
thousands of chemicals. view and edit data associated with those objects.
• Chemical datasheets provide physical properties, When you display ALOHA threat zones in MARPLOT, you
health hazards, information about air and water can get population estimates for the potentially impacted
hazards, and recommendations for firefighting, first aid, area. You can also check within the threat zone for facilities
and spill response. storing hazardous materials and locations of special
concern (such as hospitals and schools).
• UN/NA datasheets provide response information from
the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) and Key data about these locations (such as hours of operation,
shipping information from the Hazmat Table (49 CFR emergency contacts, and chemical inventories) can be
172.101). ERG Response Guide PDFs are available in displayed in CAMEO Data Manager to help make decisions
English, Spanish, and French. about the degree of hazard posed by the incident.
You can also add chemicals to the MyChemicals collection
to see what hazards might occur if the chemicals in the
collection were mixed together.
CAMEO Chemicals is available as a website, mobile
website, desktop program, and a mobile app for smart
phones and tablets. The full database of chemical
information is available in all CAMEO Chemicals formats,
but only the desktop format can share information with the
other programs in the CAMEO software suite.
Note: The website formats are available from
https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov, and you can download
the mobile app for iOS devices on the App Store and for
Android on Google Play.
ALOHA and Threat Zone Plots
ALOHA can predict the area that could be A sample MARPLOT map with a tricolored ALOHA threat zone
estimate displayed near a symbol object representing a hospital.
affected by a toxic cloud, as well as potential
threats from chemical fires or explosions.
Graphical outputs include threat zone plots, Getting CAMEO
threats at specific locations, and source strength graphs. To download any program in the suite free of charge, go to
https://www.epa.gov/cameo.
A threat zone is an area where a hazard (such as toxicity,
flammability, thermal radiation, or damaging overpressure) CAMEO suite desktop programs run on both Windows and
has exceeded a user-specified Level of Concern. Mac computers.
Threat zones are displayed on a grid in ALOHA, and they
can also be plotted on maps in MARPLOT, Esri’s ArcMap CAMEO Contact Information
(using MARPLOT to generate shapefiles for export), and For additional information:
Google Maps or Google Earth (using ALOHA’s KML export https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/cameosuite
feature). orr.cameo@noaa.gov
NOAA’s Office of Response & Restoration—Protecting our Coastal Environment
For further information about NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration,
please call (206) 526-6317 or visit our website at
https://response.restoration.noaa.gov
U.S. Department of Commerce • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 2022
