Applications of FLEXPART

FLEXPART for microplastics

Long-range transport of microplastic fibers in the atmosphere was investigated by Tatsii et al., 2024. They used a modified version of the Lagrangian dispersion model FLEXPART v10.4 (43) as a tool to investigate the effect of gravitational settling of particles of different sizes and geometries on atmospheric transport.

They present novel laboratory experiments on the gravitational settling of microplastic fibers in air and find that their settling velocities are reduced by up to 76% compared to those of the spheres of the same volume. The FLEXPART model constrained with the experimental data shows that shape-corrected settling velocities significantly increase the horizontal and vertical transport of particles. The model results show that microplastic fibers of about 1 mm length emitted in populated areas are more likely to reach extremely remote regions of the globe, including the high Arctic, which is not the case for spheres of equivalent volume. They also calculated that fibers with lengths of up to 100 μm settle slowly enough to be lifted high into the stratosphere, where degradation by ultraviolet radiation may release chlorine and bromine, thus potentially damaging the stratospheric ozone layer. These findings suggest that the growing environmental burden and still increasing emissions of plastic pose multiple threats to life on earth.