Based on Copernicus Atmospheric Service CAMS and Sentinel‑5 Precursor, Sentinel‑5 and Sentinel‑4, an innovative air quality forecasting service is developed. It combines the chemistry-transport model Polyphemus/DLR with Sentinel satellite observations of tropospheric NO\(_2\) to produce daily high-resolution air pollution forecasts for Germany and boundary countries.
Spatial resolution will be unprecedented 1 x 1 km\(^2\), allowing optimum take-up of satellite footprints (of 3 km extent) and coverage of urban pollution. With a time resolution of 1 hour, three-day forecasts of surface concentrations for main pollutants NO\(_2\), O\(_3\), SO\(_2\) and aerosols will be issued on a daily base.
Figure 1. Sample surface NO\(_\textit{2}\) distribution over Germany
at 17 UTC, October 2015.
The forecast model uses the air quality platform Polyphemus version 1.11.1, featuring state-of-the-art gas-phase and aerosol chemistry and micro-physics. CAMS daily air quality analyses will provide the boundary conditions for Europe. Pollution transport will be driven by the Weather Research and Forecast model (WRF). For anthropogenic emissions, the most recent national GRETA data base is used while CAMS‑TNO data from 2018 is applied for neighbor countries.
Contact
Frank Baier, DLR DFD‑ATM
Jana Katrin Handschuh, DLR DFD‑ATM