资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Press statement, Reading, 09/02/2021

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) closely monitored the plume of Saharan Dust that originated from northeast Algeria and was advected across much of southern and central Europe between 5-7 February. The event caused deep red skies and large deposits at the surface - most strikingly on snow-covered surfaces in the Pyrenees and Alps. The CAMS global and regional forecasts predicted this event several days in advance showing high values of surface PM10 concentrations and aerosol optical depth.

Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service comments: “The main volume of dust centred over southern France on the 6^th of February, and it is remarkable how well the CAMS regional 4-day and global 5-day forecasts showed a very consistent shape and location of the dust cloud over the full range of the preceding day’s forecasts.”

“These dust clouds brought with them high values of surface PM10 concentrations and aerosol optical depth. We saw air quality values in the affected regions drop significantly. In fact, the impact of the Saharan dust clouds is clearly visible for affected cities, such as, for example, Barcelona or Marseille on our Website. Our microsite dedicated to monitoring air quality in the context of COVID-19 can be used to see the impact of the event.”

Copernicus is the European Union’s flagship Earth observation programme which operates through six thematic services: Atmosphere, Marine, Land, Climate Change, Security and Emergency. It delivers freely accessible operational data and services providing users with reliable and up-to-date information related to our planet and its environment. The programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Océan, amongst others.

ECMWF operates two services from the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme: the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). They also contribute to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states. It is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its Member States. This data is fully available to the national meteorological services in the Member States. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe and Member States can use 25% of its capacity for their own purposes.

ECMWF is expanding its location across its Member States for some activities. In addition to an HQ in the UK and Computing Centre in Italy, new offices with a focus on activities conducted in partnership with the EU, such as Copernicus, will be located in Bonn, Germany from Summer 2021.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service website can be found at http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/
The Copernicus Climate Change Service website can be found at https://climate.copernicus.eu/
More information on Copernicus: www.copernicus.eu
The ECMWF website can be found at https://www.ecmwf.int/