GEOSS ADC Air Quality & Health Scenario

John E. White

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

white.johne@epa.gov

Air Quality Scenario Development Process

• Scenario was developed iteratively by a collaborating multi-organization group• Used the ESIP wiki and telecons to discuss and develop the submitted scenario • This Community of Practice is to co-evolve with the AIP Pilot and other activities

Community of Practice Wiki for AQ Scenario

Air Quality & Health Scenario

• Air pollution is a serious global public health problem• Air pollution is influenced by processes on local, regional,

intercontinental, and global scales• To better understand, forecast, and manage air pollution, there

is a need to bring together information from– different observational platforms (surface monitoring

networks, satellites, sondes, ground-based remote sensors, aircraft, ...)

– meteorological and chemical transport models– emissions and emissions-generating activities– population demographics, exposure-related behavior, and

health impacts do not respect political boundaries

Air Quality & Health Scenario: Actors• Earth Observations Providers

– National, State/Provincial, Local Environmental Management Agencies; National Meteorological Agencies; National Space Agencies; National Land Management Agencies; Industry; Consultants; Academic and Other Research Institutes; and international cooperative fora (e.g. WMO, CEOS, EEA, ...)

• Other Related Information Providers– National, State/Provincial, Local Commerce/Transportation/Energy/Land Use/Health Authorities; Industry;

Consultants; Academic and Other Research Institutes

• Air Quality Modelers, Forecasters, and Analysts– National, State/Provincial, Local Environmental Management Agencies; National Meteorological Agencies;

National Space Agencies; Industry; Consultants; Academic and Other Research Institutes; and international scientific cooperative fora or projects (e.g., IGAC, GEMS, ECMWF, EMEP, ...)

• Information Management Specialists– National, State/Provincial, Local Environmental Management Agencies; National Meteorological Agencies;

National Space Agencies; National Land Management Agencies; Industry; Consultants; Academic and Other Research Institutes

• Air Quality Management Decision-Makers– National, State/Provincial, Local Environmental Management Agencies and Multi-lateral Cooperative Fora

(such as LRTAP Convention, EANET, Male Declaration, CAI-Asia, Arctic Council, ...); Industry

• Other Consumers of Air Quality Information– the general public; National, State/Provincial, and Local Health and Emergency Response Authorities;

Academic and Independent Research Institutes (including health and environmental impacts research); Mass Media (including television, newspapers, radio, internet, ...)

Air Quality & Health: Starting Information• Meteorological data

– Observations from ground-based networks, satellites, sondes– Forecasts from numerical models at the global and regional scales

• Geographical data – Land use – Demographics– Emissions-related activity

• Atmospheric Composition (Air Quality) Observations– Surface Monitoring Networks– Satellite Observations – Sondes– Ground-based remote sensors– Aircraft Measurements

• Numerical Air Quality Chemical Transport Models – (at regional to global scales)

Air Quality & Health Scenario: Focus Areas

• Real-Time Large-Scale Event Analysis – FASTNET, IDEA, SmogBlog

• Assessment of International and Intercontinental Transport of Air Pollution– HTAP Data Network, AMET, RSIG, HemiTap

• Assimilation of Observations for Air Quality Forecasting– GEMS, RAQMS

• Provision of Relevant Information to the Health Community & the Public– AIRNow, PHASE

Examples – pieces of the puzzle

GAW:

WMO

Global

Atmosphere

Watch

Examples – pieces of the puzzle

GAW:

WMO

Global

Atmosphere

Watch

Examples – pieces of the puzzle

GEMS:Global & regionalEarth systemMonitoringusingSatellites

(ECMWF)

Examples – pieces of the puzzle

Informing the public about Air Quality & Forecasts in real time: AIRNow

Interoperability NEEDED!

Many Systems,

many pipes….

we shouldn’t

keep reinventing

wheels!

• The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Air quality management involves many activities including setting and maintaing air quality standards, monitoring trends, informing the public, etc. Each of these activities have different information needs. In the past both the monitoring and assessment of air quality has been performed in specific programs each directed and somewhat confined to the specific applications that they served.

• Recently, the Agency developed and now is in the process of implementing a new National Air Monitoring Strategy(NAMS). NAMS was designed to produce more reusable datasets for multiple programs/applications in EPA. Implicit in the new strategy is that there is a corresponding new Information System strategy that facilitates the access,

processing/analysis/integration of broad range of data applicable to multiple uses.

The common characteristics of both the AQ and GEOSS information systems are: • A single problem requires many data sets. • A single data set will serve many communities