Re-analyses, analyses and forecasts of European Air Quality : building operational GMES services within the MACC project

MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate) is the current pre-operational atmospheric service of the European GMES programme. MACC provides data records on atmospheric composition for recent years, data for monitoring present conditions and forecasts of the distribution of key constituents for a few days ahead. MACC combines state-of-the-art atmospheric modelling with Earth observation data to provide information services covering European Air Quality, Global Atmospheric Composition, Climate, and UV and Solar Energy. The presentation will review european air quality services, that are operated within MACC. The services are built upon an ensemble of seven state-of-the-art Air Quality models (CHIMERE, EMEP, EURAD, LOTOS-EUROS, MATCH, MOCAGE, SILAM), that are routinely run in forecast mode and verified against over a thousand surface site in 15 EU countries. In addition, hourly analyses of key pollutants are available daily for the previous day and re-analyses are carried out on an annual basis, serving as an input for european air quality assessments. These activities are a blend of basic research (on data assimilation, ensemble processing,...) and of operationalization concerns. Regional Air Quality systems benefit from the chemical boundary conditions delivered by the global services (reactive gases, aerosols) of MAC