(Official press release originally published on Copernicus website)
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) has recently signed a new partnership with leading weather forecast visualisation service, Windy. The partnership will deliver worldwide air quality information through Windy’s highly popular web and smartphone application.
Windy is a leading Czech start-up that enables approximately 800 000 people per day to see information about different weather parameters laid over a world map. The information is shown using moving particles that represent speed and direction, and colours that represent strength or density. A variety of weather elements are incorporated into the application, including wind, rain, lightning and different cloud types. Windy provides forecasts of these elements up to six days in advance.
But where does this information come from? A lot of the weather data is provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which implements CAMS on behalf of the European Union. ECMWF also contributes some information about the ozone layer, but environmental information is otherwise limited.
Through the new partnership, CAMS will provide Windy with daily forecasts of two key surface air pollutants: nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter (liquid or solid particles suspended in the air). In addition, CAMS will supply predictions related to several aerosols, including wind-blown dust, sea sprays, volcanic ash, pollution and particles from biomass burning. These forecasts will show the movement of these aerosols around the planet.
Air quality is a major global concern. It contributes to approximately 400 000 early deaths across the European Union every single year, making it the EU’s single greatest environmental health risk. It also reduces human life expectancy by an average of eight months, increasing to two years in the most polluted areas of the world. Being able to forecast air pollution can help people cope with this deadly phenomenon and should enable society to take measures on emissions and improve air quality overall.
“Visualising CAMS data is vital for helping people to understand air quality and Windy is really excellent for this,” explains Head of CAMS, Vincent-Henri Peuch. “Air pollution is not simply a local problem. It is transported by winds, leading it to affect people living far from where it was emitted. Our data allows people to see air pollution issues directly, including its sources and the transport of gases and particles through the atmosphere. It also supports citizens and policy makers in the combat against air pollution.”
Ivo Lukačovič, Founder of Windy, comments: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service to deliver high quality information on air pollution to our users all over the world. Now, more than ever before, we need to be providing data on air quality that all kinds of organisations can use which can ultimately help save lives.”
Windy has a global reach. It is used by governments, rescue teams, piolets, surfers and fishermen, with the number of users doubling each year. It is a service with global ambitions, and CAMS hopes to help it bring air quality data to more people around the world and, in turn, to help Windy’s audience grow further.
“We anticipate that the inclusion of CAMS data in Windy will contribute to making air quality forecasts as common as weather forecasts,” concludes Vincent-Henri. “The new air quality data will appear in the application by summer 2019.”
CAMS works with a number of partners to develop new applications using its data, which support users in a variety of domains including air quality, solar radiation, emissions of pollutants and surface fluxes of greenhouse gases. Are you interested in using CAMS data to develop your business? Contact us, we’d love to hear from you!
Comments (2)