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Meteorology

Atmospheric transport modelling

Study the transport of substances and flow properties of the atmosphere

Smoke plumes from wild fires in Russia
Smoke plumes from wildfires in Eastern Russia in 2008

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The winds transport a range of substances mixed with air, such as water vapour, trace gases, pollutants and aerosols through the atmosphere. Combining measurements with model results on the origin, transport pathways and arrival regions of such substances in real and idealised atmospheric flow provides important constraints to the highly non-linear advection process. 

We use and further develop the Lagrangian Particle Transport Model FLEXPART, a state-of-the-art community model for calculating particle trajectories. Application examples include desert dust mobilisation and transport, transport of smoke from forest fires, and identifying atmospheric flow patterns with tracers for chlorophyll activity, methylated Mercury and Arsenic, and artificial tracers. The transport of water vapour is its own research topic which is also based on Lagrangian simulations.

Observational methods include measurements of trace gasses at stations, and aircraft field experiments, such as the ARCTAS field experiment, POLARCAT-GRACE, LADUNEX/Fennec, TN-Falcon, HYMEX/KIT and NEAREX/EPATAN/NAWDEX. International an national collaboration is they in conducting these activities.