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NEWSLETTER  -  March 2024

Announcements

Spotlight on GAW Monitoring Infrastructure

Recognizing GAW Community Efforts

The Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), which is part of the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), represents a centre of excellence in atmospheric science. The high altitude Izaña Observatory is one of the four observatories AEMET manages in Tenerife. IARC was inaugurated in 1916 and has since carried out uninterrupted meteorological and climatological observations. The Center has contributed to the GAW Programme since its establishment in 1989, as a WMO Centennial Station, a GAW Global Station and as the Regional Calibration Center for Total Ozone (Brewer instruments).

Views of the Izaña Observatory, 2005. Source: Izaña’s webpage.

Welcoming a New GAW Station

This month, the Dobele Station (Latvia) became a GAW local station, joining forces with the registered +800 GAW Stations. Located 2.5 km East from the town of Dobele, in Latvia, this land-based station notably measures reactive gases and total atmospheric deposition.

View of the Dobele Station’s measuring equipment. Source: GAWSIS.

Farewell Wishes

Dr Emilio Cuevas-Agulló retired as Director of the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC) after 33 years of intensive contribution to the international science community. He was assigned to the Izaña Observatory in autumn 1989, (i.e. the same year that the GAW programme was born). His scientific leadership, dedication, enthusiasm and vision for the Center, as well as his passion for delivering science for society and for innovation in research and development, have been crucial to consolidate IARC as a reference research group on atmospheric science for the international community and to put on the front line the GAW global Izaña station as a reference and IARC as a key player in the GAW monitoring infrastructure. He will be greatly missed and we wish him all the best for his retirement.

Latest GAW-Related Events

2024 FICAP Meeting

The Forum for International Cooperation on Air Pollution (FICAP) meeting was hosted by WMO from 21-23 February 2024. Established in the context of the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), the FICAP promotes international collaboration to help address the threat to human health and ecosystems from air pollution. WMO is a signatory of the convention and is represented by the GAW Programme on those matters.

The 2024 meeting welcomed discussions on the evaluation, implementation and improvement of the existing capacity development activities within the different bodies under the convention. The proposed resolution on air quality for the 6th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) was also discussed, highlighting the needed use of international mechanisms.

Prof Celeste Saulo opening the FICAP meeting at WMO.

2024 Climate and Clean Air Conference

Between 21-23 February, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) held its 2024 Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Attendees discussed progress on scaling up financing and implementing effective policies to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as cutting methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). As a coalition partner, WMO is engagement in particular in the context of Greenhouse Gases (IG3IS) and in several hubs such as waste and agriculture.

During the meeting, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the CCAC launched the report Used Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDVs) and the Environment, which reveals that CO2 emissions associated with heavy duty vehicles have surged by over 30% since 2000. The report outlines a roadmap for reducing sector emissions through standardising, monitoring, and greening freight strategies.

Conference participants (left), GAW representatives L. Dulguerov and O. Tarasova (right). Source: UNEP.

First International Conference on Sand and Dust Storms

The first International Conference on Sand and Dust Storms took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 4-6 March, 2024. It was organised by the National Center for Meteorology of KSA, which also hosts one of the SDS-WAS Regional Centers: the WMO Jeddah Regional Center. A broad international representation of researchers and forecasters was present and the event included discussions on -among others- monitoring and predictive modeling, dust and climate interaction, health impacts and mitigation strategies.

Representatives of the WMO SDS-WAS Global Steering Commitee attending the event. Slobodan Nickovic (vice-chair of the Global Steering Committe) and the four chairs of the SDS-WAS Regional Nodes were in the event: Ana Vukovic (N.Africa, the Middle East and Europe), Takashi Maki (Asia), Andrea Sealy (Americas) and Jumaan Alqahtani (Gulf Cooperation Council).

Upcoming Events

Workshop on the Impact of the Hunga Tonga Eruption

The January 2022 Hunga eruption was the most explosive volcanic eruption in the satellite era. The 2nd open science workshop on the impact of this historical volcanic eruption will be held in Paris, France, from 22-24 April 2024. The outcomes of the discussions will be considered for the WCRP-SPARC special Hunga impacts report planned for late-2025 and will feed into the 2026 UNEP/WMO Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, providing a benchmark synthesis of the eruption’s impacts on the stratosphere and climate.

2024 Global Methane Forum

The 2024 Global Methane Forum will bring together industry leaders in Geneva, Switzerland, from 18-21 March 2024 to promote replicable methane mitigation successes and mobilise action to achieve ambitious methane emission reductions. The Forum will be hosted by the Global Methane Initiative (GMI) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in partnership with the Global Methane Hub and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

Online Spring Webinar Series of IG3IS

On the 27th of March, the second webinar of the 2024 IG3IS Spring Webinar Series will receive Thomas Lauvaux, from the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France, to talk about urban CO2 monitoring.