Make Mesh Particles go Outward

Greetings,

I would like to use a Mesh Particle emitter and make the particles go outward. Here’s an example

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4448/particleemitter.jpg

I need this to make a gust-type attack for the character. Is their a way to accomplish such a thing, other than to attach several emitters?

From what I know, the best way to do this is to give the particles a really high tangent velocity, so that they shoot out in the direction of the ring. Then, make your emitter much smaller, but to maintain the ring effect make the particles invisible for a little longer (using the colour animation bit in the particle animator.