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The species (chemical elements) released during a simulation are specified as integer numbers in the Release Species parameter in FLEXPART Run. The integer ID of the individual species are taken from the name of the species definition files.These have to be located in the directory defined

  • via the User Species Path parameter in FLEXPART Run
  • or if it is left blank (this is the default value) Metview will use the MV_FLEXPART_SPECIES environment variable.

The species distributed with FLEXPART

Folder option/SPECIES in the FLEXPART distribution contains a default set of species definitions. Here each species is represented by a file called SPECIES_NNN , where NNN is the integer ID of the given species.The table below summarises what species are available:

FileDescription
FileDescription
FileDescription

SPECIES_001

TRACER
SPECIES_011NH3
SPECIES_021Xe-133

SPECIES_002

O3
SPECIES_012SO4-areo
SPECIES_022:CO
SPECIES_003NO
SPECIES_013SO4-areo

SPECIES_024

AIRTRACER
SPECIES_004NO2
SPECIES_014I2-13
SPECIES_025AERO-TRACER
SPECIES_005HNO3
SPECIES_015I-131


SPECIES_006HNO2
SPECIES_016Cs-137


SPECIES_007H2O2
SPECIES_017Y-91


SPECIES_008SO2
SPECIES_018Ru-106


SPECIES_009

HCHO

SPECIES_019

Kr-85


SPECIES_010PAN

SPECIES_020

Sr-90


At ECMWF 

The species are located in the directory specified by environment variable MV_FLEXPART_SPECIES. The contents of this directory is the same as that of folder option/SPECIES in the FLEXPART distribution.

At other sites

Instructions to setup the species path can be found here.

Using your own definitions

If you want create your own species definition you need make a copy of this directory and add your own species to it. Then set the path in User Species Path so that FLEXPART could pick up your definitions.