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 (AQ) 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 GAW efforts on air pollution forecasting and dust strom prediction, and it intends to build strong links with the international health community. As a major first step, GAFIS will carry out and maintain a survey of AQ information systems and identify areas and regions with a lack of adequate AQ services. GAFIS aims to improve access to air quality observations and to encourage better quality control and meta-data provision.  GAFIS will initiate coordinated evaluation activities of air quality services using a harmonized evaluation protocol. Finally,  promoting operational applications of atmospheric composition feedbacks in Numerical Weather Prediction is a further objective of GAFIS.

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