Data from satellite instruments provide estimates of gas and particle levels relevant to human health, even pollutants invisible to the human eye. However, the successful interpretation of satellite data requires an understanding of how satellites relate to other data sources, as well as factors affecting their application to health challenges. Drawing from the expertise and experience of the 2016...

Integrating air quality information from models, satellites, and in situ monitors allows for both better estimation of air quality and better quantification of uncertainties in this estimation. Uncertainty quantification is important to appropriately convey confidence in these estimates and forecasts to users who will base decisions on these. Uncertainty quantification also allows tracing the valu...

The potential of ensemble techniques to improve ozone forecasts is investigated. Ensembles with up to 48 members (models) are generated using the modeling system Polyphemus. Members differ in their physical parameterizations, their numerical approximations, and their input data. Each model is evaluated during 4 months (summer 2001) over Europe with hundreds of stations from three ozone-monitoring ...

The purpose of this policy brief is to deepen the understanding of barriers to public investment in ambient AQ in LMICs, despite the growing political recognition of the harmful impacts. Public investment here refers to government-led investment financed through domestic public expenditure, sovereign borrowing, and external sovereign grants and loans. The analysis draws on findings from a four-mon...

Air pollution accelerates climate change and damages all aspects of planetary health, including food systems and human health. Air pollution is linked to stroke, heart disease, respiratory diseases, lung cancer, adverse pregnancy outcomes and poor cognitive development. In addition, air pollution is associated with higher mortality rates, especially among the most vulnerable. Two major sources of ...

The Investment Case for Improved Ambient Air Quality and Health in Ghana presents new evidence on the health and economic impacts of ambient air pollution, demonstrating why cleaner air is essential for improving public health, strengthening economic resilience and advancing sustainable development. Developed by UNDP with support from Breathe Cities, the report provides an evidence base to inform ...

Data assimilation has been successfully used for meteorology for many years and is now used more and more for atmospheric composition issues (air quality analysis and forecast). The data assimilation of pollutants remains difficult and its deployment is currently in progress. It is thus difficult to have quantitative knowledge of what we can expect as the maximum benefit. In this study we propose ...

Air quality in South Asia poses a major threat to human health and requires transboundary cooperation to address. Earth observations (EOs) can play a critical role in air quality monitoring and operations but require training to enable their effective integration. This article describes the outcome of a training in Kathmandu, Nepal, organized by the SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya program, on Earth obs...

A new dynamical core, known as the Finite Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) and developed at both NASA and NOAA, is used in NOAA’s Global Forecast System (GFS) and in limited-area models for regional weather and air quality applications. NOAA has also upgraded the operational FV3GFS to version 16 (GFSv16), which includes a number of significant developmental advances to the model configuration, data assim...

The combination of air quality (AQ) data from satellites and low-cost sensor systems, along with output from AQ models, have the potential to augment high-quality, regulatory-grade data in countries with in situ monitoring networks and provide much needed AQ information in countries without them, including Low and Moderate Income Countries (LMICs). We demonstrate the potential of free and publicly...