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STUDIES ON THE TRANSPORT OF COASTAL WATER FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL TO THE BALTIC SEA USING RADIOACTIVE TRACERS

Objective


Radionuclides discharged from La Hague are used to trace advection and dispersion of water masses in the European Coastal Current from the English Channel to the entry of the Baltic. Time series of radionuclide measurements in water samples taken in the English Channel, at the Netherlands coast, in the German North Sea sector and in Danish waters are being performed. 3 fundamentally different numeric models are being developed in the programme. The 2-dimensional IFREMER model and the 3-dimensional BSH model are independent of the sampled data, whereas the Risoe box model is utilizing the data. Model simulations will be compared with collected database. The database will furthermore be made available as a model evaluation tool for other groups working with coastal water mass and contaminant advection and dispersion. Finally, the projects includes a first competent estimate of the prospects for using iodine-129 measured by accelerator man spectrometry (AMS) as a sensitive oceanographic tracer, and radiochemical work on improving and documenting the discrimination against disturbing impurities in the technetium-99 analytical procedure.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Radionuclides discharged from La Hague will be used to trace transport and dispersal of coastal water masses. A time-series of radionuclide measurements in water samples taken in the English Channel at the Dutch coast, in the German North Sea sector and in Danish waters will be performed. Rates of water transport, dilution of the coastal currents with other water masses and transit times will be elucidated. Radionuclides ratios facilitate tracing of specific discharges in spite of dilution. This will contribute significantly to the knowledge of transit routes, transit times and mixing. The data will be used to improve models capable of describing the transport quantitatively. The results from the sampling programme will furthermore provide a unique data set for validating other models.

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Coordinator

RISOE NATIONAL LABORATORY
EU contribution
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Address
Frederiksborgvej 399
ROSKILDE
Denmark

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Participants (5)