M. Alarcon et al., ATMOSPHERIC TRAJECTORY MODELS FOR SIMULATION OF LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT AND DIFFUSION OVER THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN, Journal of environmental science and health. Part A: Environmental science and engineering, 30(9), 1995, pp. 1973-1994
Studies carried out in the Centre d'Estudis Avancats de Blanes about t
he importance of the atmospheric fluxes of nutrients near the coast in
dicate that the quantities of nitrate deposited are of the same order
of magnitude as the vertical diffusive fluxes from deep waters. Theref
ore, the atmosphere would be an important source of nutrients for the
marine productivity, particularly, in oligotrophic waters constituting
the greatest part of the Mediterranean Sea. Implementation of long-ra
nge trajectory models has been made in order to simulate transport of
pollutants over the Western Mediterranean. Three lagrangian models of
increasing complexity have been developed assuming different simplific
ations to the conservation equations. The first one, a purely kinemati
c 2-D method uses averaged wind in a layer. It is appropriate for dete
rmining the dominant fluxes at a region of interest, considering a lar
ge number of trajectories. The second, an isentropic model, computes t
rajectories following the surfaces of constant potential temperature:
Finally, a 3-D model for complex regions, incorporates physical proces
ses such as those induced by orography, flux energy, atmospheric stabi
lity and horizontal thermal gradients.