UCAR

AQ-WATCH will develop a supply chain leading to the generation of seven downstream products and services that are innovative for improving air quality forecasts and attribution. These prototypes will be based on existing space and in situ observations of air quality and tailored to the identified needs of international users. The project will allow for the first time small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to integrate a very large number of datasets associated with earth’s observations with advanced predictive models. These innovative products and services are aimed at improving public health and optimizing service provided by the energy sector in different regions of the world. The consortium supporting the project includes knowledge institutes, applied science organizations and business-oriented partners, and covers the required expertise to define the optimal functionalities of the products and services, and bring them to the market. The project will create opportunities for new environmental technologies. It will also upscale the portfolio of SMEs and reinforce their ethical and social responsibility in support of the world-wide effort to improve air quality.

Blue-Action will provide fundamental and empirically-grounded, executable science that quantifies and explains the role of a changing Arctic in increasing predictive capability of weather and climate of the Northern Hemisphere.To achieve this Blue-Action will take a transdisciplinary approach, bridging scientific understanding within Arctic climate, weather and risk management research, with key stakeholder knowledge of the impacts of climatic weather extremes and hazardous events; leading to the co-design of better services.This bridge will build on innovative statistical and dynamical approaches to predict weather and climate extremes. In dialogue with users, Blue-Arctic will take stock in existing knowledge about cross-sectoral impacts and vulnerabilities with respect to the occurrence of these events when associated to weather and climate predictions. Modeling and prediction capabilities will be enhanced by targeting firstly, lower latitude oceanic and atmospheric drivers of regional Arctic changes and secondly, Arctic impacts on Northern Hemisphere climate and weather extremes. Coordinated multi-model experiments will be key to test new higher resolution model configurations, innovative methods to reduce forecast error, and advanced methods to improve uptake of new Earth observations assets are planned. Blue-Action thereby demonstrates how such an uptake may assist in creating better optimized observation system for various modelling applications. The improved robust and reliable forecasting can help meteorological and climate services to better deliver tailored predictions and advice, including sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales, will take Arctic climate prediction beyond seasons and to teleconnections over the Northern Hemisphere. Blue-Action will through its concerted efforts therefore contribute to the improvement of climate models to represent Arctic warming realistically and address its impact on regional and global atmospheric and oceanic circulation.