Abstract. An integrated modeling system has been developed to accurately describe the dust cycle in the atmosphere. It is based on the SKIRON/Eta modeling system and the Eta/NCEP regional atmospheric model. The dust modules of the entire system incorporate the state of the art parameterizations of all the major phases of the atmospheric dust life such as production, diffusion, advection, and removal. These modules also include effects of the particle size distribution on aerosol dispersion. The dust production mechanism is based on the viscous/turbulent mixing, shear-free convection diffusion, and soil moisture. In addition to these sophisticated mechanisms, very high resolution databases, including elevation, soil properties, and vegetation cover are utilized. The entire system is easily configurable and transferable to any place on the Earth, it can cover domains on almost any size, and its horizontal resolution can vary from about 100 km up to approximately 4 km. It can mn on one-way-nested form if necessary. The performance of the system has been tested for various dust storm episodes, in various places and resolution using gridded analysis or forecasting fields from various sources (ECMWF and NCEP) for initial and boundary conditions. The system is in operational use during the last two years, providing 72 hour forecasts for the Mediterranean region. The results are available on the internet (http://www.icod.org.mt and http://forecast. uoa.gr).

International audienceMarine recreational fishing (MRF) is a high-participation activity with large economic value and social benefits globally, and it impacts on some fish stocks. Although reporting MRF catches is a European Union legislative requirement, estimates are only available for some countries. Here, data on numbers of fishers, participation rates, days fished, expenditures, and catches of two widely targeted species were synthesized to provide European estimates of MRF and placed in the global context. Uncertainty assessment was not possible due to incomplete knowledge of error distributions; instead, a semi-quantitative bias assessment was made. There were an estimated 8.7 million European recreational sea fishers corresponding to a participation rate of 1.6%. An estimated 77.6 million days were fished, and expenditure was €5.9 billion annually. There were higher participation, numbers of fishers, days fished and expenditure in the Atlantic than the Mediterranean, but the Mediterranean estimates were generally less robust. Comparisons with other regions showed that European MRF participation rates and expenditure were in the mid-range, with higher participation in Oceania and the United States, higher expenditure in the United States, and lower participation and expenditure in South America and Africa. For both northern European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, Moronidae) and western Baltic cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae) stocks, MRF represented 27% of the total removals. This study highlights the importance of MRF and the need for bespoke, regular and statistically sound data collection to underpin European fisheries management. Solutions are proposed for future MRF data collection in Europe and other regions to support sustainable fisheries management

[1] Long-range transport of desert dust from the Sahara across the northern Atlantic has been recorded many times by satellite imagery and ground-based measurements. However, this evidence cannot fully describe all the phases of the atmospheric dust lifecycle. To partly compensate for the lack of such knowledge, an atmospheric model with incorporated dust uptake-transport-deposition module has been used in this study. The goal was to assess qualitatively and quantitatively the ability of the model to predict the dust cycle in the atmosphere for a long period. For this purpose, the complicated dust episode of June-July 1993 (almost one month) was simulated with the SKIRON weather forecasting system. This dust intrusion was associated with long-range transport of Saharan dust across the Atlantic Ocean and simultaneous regional transport towards the Mediterranean Sea. Comparison of the forecasts with the available observations (in a qualitative and quantitatively way) indicated that the model was able to simulate the long-range dust transport patterns and in particular to estimate the spatiotemporal distribution of the dust concentration on a satisfactory way.

Abstract.The general climatic conditions and the physiographic characteristics of the area around the Mediterranean Sea, result in the formation of a flow pattem which is from North to South during all seasons and mainly during summer. This flow transports polluted air masses from southem Europe towards Africa. This transport is being investigated with the combined use of an atmospheric and a Lagrangian dispersion model. Air pollutants released from sources located in southern Europe were found in the entire tropospheric region over North Africa. The time scales for such a transport were found to be four to six days. This kind of transport can have several implications ranging from degradation of the air quality in North African cities to the water budget and regional climatic change.

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