Global Air quality Forecast and Information Systems (GAFIS) - a new WMO-GAW initiative

Air pollution is the single largest environmental risk factor to health globally; it contributes to climate change, is detrimental for ecosystems, damages property, impacts visibility and can threaten food and water security. A wide variety of Air Quality systems operate at different spatial and temporal scales to provide information required to mitigate the impact of or to reduce air pollution.

Recognising the importance to support the transition of scientific efforts into useful services, the Global Atmosphere Watch Programme (GAW) of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has started an initiative on Global Air quality Forecast and Information Systems (GAFIS). GAFIS aims to become a network for the development of good practices for air quality forecasting and monitoring services using diverse approaches. GAFIS will closely interact with existing efforts in WMO-GAW and the wider scientific community on air pollution, dust storm and wild fire plume forecasting.

The scope of GAFIS is structured into the topics areas: (a) Capacity Development, (b) Good Practises (and challenges) of Air Quality Forecasting and Information System, (c) Air Quality Observations and (d) Air Quality and Numerical Weather Prediction. As a major first step, GAFIS carried out a survey of AQ information systems. GAFIS aims to improve access to air quality observations and to support better quality control and meta-data provision. GAFIS will promote coordinated evaluation activities of air quality services using a harmonized evaluation protocol. Encouraging operational applications of atmospheric composition forecasting as part of Numerical Weather Prediction is a further objective of GAFIS.

In the presentation we will introduce GAFIS to the scientific community and invite collaboration within the GAFIS framework.