Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
With respect to the sun - the mountain regions are characterized by higher clarity
and transparency of the atmosphere, and the mountain ridges - by higher orographic
bleakness, which is favorable for increasing solar intensity and the respective helio-
power potential. However, at the same time the mountain regions exhibit more
significant values of cloudiness, number of dark days, precipitation and mists, which
decrease the respective energy potential of these regions. On average the Bulgarian
mountains are characterized by values of about 1,800-2,200 sunny hours per year,
which is relatively favorable for the construction of solar parks. The capacity and
effectiveness of these parks depend also on a number of other local factors, the
orographic bleakness and southern exposition being especially important.
In the sphere of recreation and tourism, climate may be used as a resource for
heliotherapy, aerotherapy, cryotherapy and winter sports. The first three of these
activities belong more closely to climatic therapy and climatic prophylaxis, which
in our opinion are not sharply differentiated from the recreational-tourist activity,
but rather represent its specific parts.
Heliotherapy is based on the physiological role of solar radiation on the human
organism, representing one of the most important - and vitally necessary for man -
elements of climate. Its significance is expressed in two basic aspects: as a heat
source, in the system of the thermal exchange between the human body and the
environment, and as a source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
UV radiation, within the range of definite doses, exerts favorable effects on the
cardio-vascular and nervous system of the organism, the metabolism, and endocrine
gland functions. UV radiation annihilates harmful microbes and normalizes fat
exchange, increasing the resistance of the organism to different diseases. A defi-
ciency of UV leads to pathological states, known as “light hunger of the organism,”
but excess of UV has a blastomogenic impact. For 320 days of the year the territory
of Bulgaria has the potential to provide the necessary UV doses. However, under
real conditions this possibility is reduced depending on the momentary thickness of
the ozone layer in the high parts of the atmosphere, the transparency of the latter,
the weather conditions, and in particular on the character of cloudiness (Mateeva,
1999
).
Aerotherapy represents the treatment of disease by the use of air which may be
saturated with specific components, for example medicinal species such as phy-
toncides and other specific particles, and cryotherapy represents stimulation of the
organism at minus temperatures.
Winter sports are directly dependent on snow cover, which is formed annually
in Bulgaria, but it is stable only in the mountains at an altitude exceeding 1,100-
1,400 m. Basic factors relating to snow cover are snowfall, as well as temperature of
the air and the underlying substrate. Snowfall in the mountain regions of Bulgaria
represent about 20% (from the total sum of precipitation) in their low parts, between
20 and 40% in the medium-high mountain parts and more than 40% in their high
parts. Snow cover is formed first in the high-mountain belt - as early as in the second
half of October, and in the middle- and low-mountain belt - in November. The first
snow cover in the mountains of Southeast Bulgaria - Strandzha, Sakar, the East
Rhodopes - appears at the beginning of December. The last snow cover is observed
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