Introduction - Integrated systems: On-line and off-line coupling of meteorological and air quality models, advantages and disadvantages

Abstract

Historically air pollution forecasting and numerical weather prediction (NWP) were developed separately. This was plausible in the previous decades when the resolution of NWP models was too poor for meso-scale air pollution forecasting. Due to modern NWP models approaching meso- and city-scale resolution (due to advances in computing power) and the use of land-use databases and remote sensing data with finer resolution, this situation is changing. As a result the conventional concepts of meso- and urban-scale air pollution forecasting need revision along the lines of integration of meso-scale meteorological models (MetMs) and atmospheric chemical transport models (ACTMs). For example, a new Environment Canada conception suggests to switch from weather forecasting to environment forecasting. Some European projects (e.g. FUMAPEX, see: fumapex.dmi.dk) already work in this direction and have set off on a promising path. In case of FUMAPEX it is the Urban Air Quality Information and Forecasting Systems (UAQIFS) integrating NWP models, urban air pollution (UAP) and population exposure models (Baklanov et al. 2007b), see Fig. 1.1. © 2011 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.