Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)

Rationale and Mission                     of GAW

The rationale for the Global Atmosphere Watch (as formulated in the GAW Strategic Plan: 2008-2015) is the need to understand and control the increasing influence of human activity on the global atmosphere. Among the grand challenges are:

• Stratospheric ozone depletion and the increase of ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
• Changes in the weather and climate related to human influence on atmospheric composition, particularly, greenhouse gases, ozone and aerosols.
• Risk reduction of air pollution on human health and issues involving long-range transport and deposition of air pollution.

Many of these have socio-economic consequences affecting weather, climate, human and ecosystem health, water supply and quality, and agricultural production.

The mission of GAW, taking into account the Integrated Global Atmospheric Chemistry Observations (IGACO) strategy, is to

• Reduce environmental risks to society and meet the requirements of environmental conventions.
• Strengthen capabilities to predict climate, weather and air quality.
• Contribute to scientific assessments in support of environmental policy.

through

• Maintaining and applying global, long-term observations of the chemical composition and selected physical characteristics of the atmosphere.
• Emphasising quality assurance and quality control.
• Delivering integrated products and services of relevance to users.

GAW also fulfils a mandate from WMO Members by responding to the needs and clearly linking to the plans of national, regional, and international observing projects, programmes, systems and  strategies, e.g.

• As a component of the WMO integrated global observing system, contributing to Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) in support of Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
• In supporting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), especially by contributing to the implementation plan for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)
• In observing the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Stratospheric Ozone Layer and follow-up protocols.
• In supporting the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP).
• In providing a comprehensive set of observations of atmospheric composition in support of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) process.

History

Monitoring of trace atmospheric constituents was originally driven by scientific curiosity. It was not long before questions were raised as to what extent the observed increases in certain trace chemicals are connected to human activities and what the consequences would be for humanity if it should continue unabated.

WMO provided a substantial contribution in converting scientifically driven events into regular monitoring.  It formally embarked on a programme of atmospheric chemistry and meteorological aspects of air pollution during the 1950s. Need for adequate information on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and on the consequences of the anthropogenic impact can be estimated on a global scale only if all measurements of the component of interest are expressed in the same units or on the same scale, i.e. the measurements performed by different countries are comparable.

The first step has been made by WMO in the international coordination of chemical measurements during the 1957 International Geophysical Year. WMO has taken a responsibility for development of standard procedures for uniform ozone observations and establishing the Global Ozone Observing System (GO3OS). It presented a coordinated Dobson and later Breuer spectrophotometer network to measure total atmospheric ozone. The system included ozonesondes intercomparisons, preparation of the Ozone Bulletins and Ozone Assessments and support of Ozone data center in Canada.

In the late 1960s, the Background Air Pollution Monitoring Network (BAPMoN) was established. It focused on precipitation chemistry, aerosol and carbon dioxide measurements, included regional and background stations and had WMO World data center established in USA

During the 1970s three important atmospheric issues were addressed: (a) the threat of CFC's to the ozone layer, (b) acidification of lakes and forests in large parts of North America and Europe, caused principally by the conversion of sulphur dioxide into sulphuric acid by precipitation processes in the atmosphere and, (c) potential global warming caused by the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Each of these issues is now the subject of international treaties or conventions. The initial development of these agreements and the subsequent assessments of the mitigation measures they contain, rely heavily on the information derived from WMO's atmospheric composition monitoring programme.

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