The PREV'AIR system, an operational system for large scale air quality forecasts over Europe : applications at the local scale

Abstract : Since Summer 2003, the PREV'AIR system has been delivering through the Internet daily air quality forecasts over Europe. This is the visible part of a wider collaborative project - the PREV'AIR project - launched by the French Ministry for Ecology and Sustainable Development (MEDD), aiming at: (1) Providing technical support on atmospheric pollution management in Europe, in the framework of negotiations on trans-boundary air pollution. (2) Providing large scale national air quality information based on numerical simulations and observations. The PREV'AIR system is a complementary monitoring tool with respect to the local information delivered by the French qualified associations in charge of regional air quality monitoring (AASQA). PREV'AIR relies on a chain of numerical tools: air quality simulation models, modules ensuring the provision of meteorological and air quality input data to these models, modules enabling the extraction and use of the numerical data computed by the system. The outputs of the PREV'AIR system (secondary pollutants forecasts and maps) are archived to build up a large scale air quality simulation data base over Europe.