干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Long-range transport of gases and aerosols depends on vertical and horizontal air shifts: studies on atmospheric transport have to be based on the meteorological conditions of the environment. The aim of this paper is to review the physical principles on which meteorological models are based, and to make an exhaustive inventory of the main models used for the prognosis and diagnosis of air masses and a list of the long-range transport models associated to them. URL addresses are provided for all of these models to allow the reader to check their usefulness. A practical application is included with reference to trajectories followed by air masses that reach the Iberian Peninsula at various altitudes, depending on the synoptic meteorological situation. Further examples describe air masses entering Europe with desert dust from Africa. This dust may eventually develop into freezing nuclei and form hailstones in summer storms.