Modelling and forecasting of regional and urban air quality and microclimate

Existing gaps and requirements of air quality modelling problems for the urban and regional scales are discussed, and a novel strategy and methodology for the integration (off-line and on-line) and downscaling of numerical weather prediction (NWP) and regional/urban air-pollution (RAP/UAP) models, is presented as well as the building of integrated systems for forecasting meteorology and air pollution. Possible realisations of this methodology in the European Union and particularly in Denmark for specific atmospheric pollution problems are discussed. The EU FUMAPEX project is presented including the strategy and recent achievements of the improvement of meteorological forecasts for urban areas, the connection of NWP models to urban air-pollution and population exposure models, and the building of improved urban air-quality information and forecasting systems. The paper outlines the common status of DMI activities on the subject, following the above strategy, in the field of urban and regional scale air pollution modelling and the integration with NWP models, with examples from UAP to RAP modelling for emergency preparedness and ground-level ozone forecasting.