FLEPXART backward dispersion simulations

The dataset contains results of the Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model FLEXPART as used in Schoenenberger et al. (2017).

FLEXPART was run in backward, receptor-oriented mode for 4 sites: Jungfraujoch, Monte Cimone, Mace Head, Finokalia.
FLEXPART was driven by ECMWF IFS windfields with a global resolution of 1° x 1° and 0.2° x 0.2° for the Alpine area. 50,000 particles are released every 3 hours and followed backward in time for 10 days.

Data format

Each sub-folder for each site contains individual footprint files for the main and nested output domain of FLEXPART. Individual files are provided for every 3 hour interval and follow a custom binary format.
Binary representation of total surface footprint.
The binary files are written with R on linux and contain no stop bytes. For reading them with FORTRAN you will need to use form='unformatted' and access='direct'.
The files have the following structure:
Longitude range of grid (2 element 4 byte real)
Latitude range of grid (2 element 4 byte real)
Number of grid in longitude direction, nx (1 element 4 byte integer)
Number of grid in latitude direction, ny (1 element 4 byte integer)
Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute of latest realease (5 element 4 byte integer)
Level top of surface layer in metres (1 element 4 byte real)
Residence times (nx x ny element 4 byte real; elements are written along longitudes first, from the largest to the smallest latitude)

Schoenenberger, F., S. Henne, M. Hill, M. K. Vollmer, G. Kouvarakis, N. Mihalopoulos, S. O'Doherty, M. Maione, L. Emmenegger, T. Peter, and S. Reimann  (2017), Abundance and Sources of Atmospheric Halocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 2017, 1-46, doi: 10.5194/acp-2017-451.