GEMS Project Starts in Hamburg
Predicting successfully the evolution of the atmosphere for a period of several days is a challenging task, which requires the operational collection and assimila-tion of observational data (often provided by satellite sensors), the numerical simulation of the atmosphere (by increasingly complex models), and the analysis of the model results to pro-vide the specific information required by the public.
Today a major evolution in weather forecast is in preparation in Europe and elsewhere. In the next few years, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) will extend its predictions towards new variables, including aerosols and other chemical com-pounds in the atmosphere, atmospheric visibility in relation to air pollution events, the amount of harmful solar ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth´s surface etc. This new information on global and regional scales will be extremely helpful for planning purposes in several sec-tions of the economy (health, energy, chemistry, forestry, transportation, tourism etc.). For the first time, by combining the traditional meteorological forecasts with monitoring products on air chemistry, predictions on air quality will become available over time scales of 3 to 10 days.
The development of a real time preoperational assimilation and forecast capability for aerosols, greenhouse gases and reactive compounds involves the participation of more than 20 research centres in Europe. The work will be coordinated by ECMWF and financially supported by the European Commission. It contributes to the goals of the EU programme called “Global Monitoring of the Environment for Security (GMES).
The kick-off meeting of the Project GEMS (Global and regional Earth-system (Atmosphere) Monitoring using Satellite and in-situ data) will take place at the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg on 4-6 July 2005. MPI-M contributes to the GEMS Project by develop-ing chemistry and aerosol modeling capabilities that will be included in the forecast system at ECMWF.
Further information here
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Guy Pierre Brasseur
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
Tel: +49 - 40 - 41173 - 421
e-mail
June 28, 2005