Ponente
Descripción
ECCC's operational air quality program is based on a multi-pollutant forecast and warning program and includes several Air Quality (AQ)-related products. Currently, AQ information is communicated through an Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) that is primarily based on forecasted and/or observed concentrations of O3, NO2 and PM2.5. The ECCC national AQ program is supported by two operational forecast systems: the Regional Air Quality Deterministic Prediction System (RAQDPS) and FireWork, where the latter also includes near-real-time biomass combustion emissions. At the heart of these systems is a limited-area version of the GEM-MACH model, an online meteorology-chemistry model that is configured for a North American domain with a 10-km horizontal resolution. The other ECCC AQ-related products include the Regional Deterministic Air Quality Analysis (RDAQA) system for objective analyses of PM10, PM2.5, NO2, NO, O3, and SO2 and several statistical post-processing packages.
The Canadian operational AQ program is continuously improving and some of the most recent upgrades will be covered by this presentation, including chemical process improvements, anthropogenic emission updates, wildfire emission module upgrades, extended forecast lead-times, etc. Some of the regional and/or WMO initiatives bringing together different entities to provide improved and timely AQ services tailored to user needs will also be discussed.
