Copernicus

Atmosphere

Monitoring

Service

CAMS General Assembly, Athens, 14-16 June 2016

Mark Parrington (ECMWF)

Seppo Hassinen (FMI)

What are the opportunities

for increasing the use of

observations in CAMS?

2

Expert participation

• Satellite retrievals

• Regional/global modelling

• Data management

• Data assimilation

• (limited representation from ground-based and in situ

communities)

3

Background

• Sebastien Massart (ECMWF) presented CAMS/operational

requirements for data.

• NRT availability, complementary to other assimilated data,

usability, quality.

• Data should come with documentation (including different

versions and differences) and quality flags.

• Selection in CAMS global production system follows data

documentation, needs thinning, and final assimilation based on

quality wrt to forecast system (first guess check).

• Other considerations: validation/verification, data format and

consistency between datasets and versions.

4

O3M-SAF (ACM-SAF) validation and practices

• Potential for Copernicus satellite data.

• Validation and NRT quality monitoring supporting MetOp products.

• O3, AQ (NO2, HCHO, SO2), O3 chemistry (BrO), aerosols, volcanic (SO2,

including altitude, and ash) products.

• Quality monitoring

• Trends in biases and homogeneity of data.

• Satellite data, lidar and ozonesondes.

• Future operational activities

• ACM-SAF 2017-2022.

• S5P ESA provision; national funding, ESA coordination.

• S4 and S5 products: operational validation and NRT monitoring.

5

Main themes discussed

• Operational data provision

• Documentation, quality, usability, format, diagnostics, timeliness

(distinction between assimilation vs. validation), versions and metadata

• Regional and global coverage (consistency and organizational

requirements)

• Validation data

• Applications (ground-based vs. in situ vs. satellite) for different species

• Potential for using same instruments with products from different

providers?

• Usage of data in the CAMS system

• Thinning of data vs. super observations

• First guess checking

6

Recommendations

• Formal communication/feedback between CAMS and data providers

• Long-term observation requirements in CAMS and format/metadata

definitions. What does ECMWF want/expect from data providers?

• Usage statistics (daily summary of active vs. rejected observations)

• Need for meetings (annual/biannual) or forum via CAMS user support?

• Use of CAMS products for satellite (especially Sentinels) retrieval algorithm

development – how to address current limitations (e.g. stratospheric NO2

assimilation).

• Consistent organisation of observations for regional models for data

assimilation

• This is done for surface observations but could be extended to satellite

obsservations

7

Potential future considerations

• Anthropogenic SO2 emissions

• Irregular emissions sources, possibly not included in

emissions inventories.

• Role for direct readout satellite products

• Currently utilised by NASA missions

• Approx. 20 minute data availability

• Observational requirements for CAMS in the context of

other Copernicus services

• New species retrievals (e.g. NH3) and availability