FLEXPART version 11: improved accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility

Autor(en)
Lucie Bakels, Daria Tatsii, Anne Tipka, Rona L. Thompson, Marina Dütsch, Michael Blaschek, Petra Seibert, Katharina Baier, Silvia Bucci, Massimo Cassiani, Sabine Eckhardt, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Stephan Henne, Pirmin Kaufmann, Vincent Lechner, Christian Maurer, Marie D. Mulder, Ignacio Pisso, Andreas Plach, Rakesh Subramanian, Martin Vojta, Andreas Stohl
Abstrakt

Numerical methods and simulation codes are essential for the advancement of our understanding of complex atmospheric processes. As technology and computer hardware continue to evolve, the development of sophisticated code is vital for accurate and efficient simulations. In this paper, we present the recent advancements made in the FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model (FLEXPART), a Lagrangian particle dispersion model, which has been used in a wide range of atmospheric transport studies over the past 3 decades, extending from tracing radionuclides from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, to inverse modelling of greenhouse gases, and to the study of atmospheric moisture cycles.

This version of FLEXPART includes notable improvements in accuracy and computational efficiency. (1) By leveraging the native vertical coordinates of European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) instead of interpolating to terrain-following coordinates, we achieved an improvement in trajectory accuracy, leading to a ∼8 %–10 % reduction in conservation errors for quasi-conservative quantities like potential vorticity. (2) The shape of aerosol particles is now accounted for in the gravitational settling and dry-deposition calculation, increasing the simulation accuracy for non-spherical aerosol particles such as microplastic fibres. (3) Wet deposition has been improved by the introduction of a new below-cloud scheme, by a new cloud identification scheme, and by improving the interpolation of precipitation. (4) Functionality from a separate version of FLEXPART, the FLEXPART CTM (chemical transport model), is implemented, which includes linear chemical reactions. Additionally, the incorporation of Open Multi-Processing parallelisation makes the model better suited for handling large input data. Furthermore, we introduced novel methods for the input and output of particle properties and distributions. Users now have the option to run FLEXPART with more flexible particle input data, providing greater adaptability for specific research scenarios (e.g. effective backward simulations corresponding to satellite retrievals). Finally, a new user manual (https://flexpart.img.univie.ac.at/docs/, last access: 11 September 2024) and restructuring of the source code into modules will serve as a basis for further development.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Meteorologie und Geophysik, Interinstitutioneller Forschungsverbund Wiener Netzwerk für Atmosphärenforschung
Externe Organisation(en)
Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), GeoSphere Austria
Journal
Geoscientific Model Development
Band
17
Seiten
7595–7627
Anzahl der Seiten
32
ISSN
1991-959X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7595-2024
Publikationsdatum
2024
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
105206 Meteorologie
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/flexpart-version-11-improved-accuracy-efficiency-and-flexibility(4fbd0e27-fd07-4a50-ae28-deec4a18eb0a).html