World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

The Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), provides international leadership in research and capacity development, in atmospheric composition observations and analysis through maintaining, and applying long-term systematic observations of the chemical composition, and related physical characteristics of the atmosphere. The Programme emphasize quality assurance and quality control, and delivering integrated products and services related to atmospheric composition of relevance to users. The Programme includes several focal areas: reactive gases, aerosols, greenhouse gases, stratospheric ozone, total atmospheric deposition and UV Radiation. The GAW Implementation Plan for the period 2016-2023 builds upon the growing importance of atmospheric composition for multiple applications. These applications include support of climate mitigation, ecosystem services, atmospheric pollution and human health and many others. In addition to scientific advice provided for the focal areas, GAW includes several projects that focus on advancement of the predictive capabilities. These include the Sand-and-Dust Storms Warning and Advisory System, the GAW Urban Meteorology and Environment (GURME) project related to urban air quality forecasting. To support mitigation actions by member countries WMO initiated development of the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System that combines atmospheric observations, inverse modelling tools and socio-economic data to provide the best information for national policy making. WMO/GAW is a long-term sponsor of the Working Group 38 of the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP). Recently this group initiated two new assessments related to the impacts of the changing atmospheric acidity on the oceanic solubility of nutrients and on the impact of the ocean acidification on fluxes of non-CO2 climate-active species. These activities are supported by the WMO/GAW community and will be linked with the new GAW project on the measurement-model fusion approach for the estimates of the total atmospheric deposition.