A European open access chemical weather forecasting portal

A European chemical weather forecasting portal is presented in this paper that has been developed within the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) ES0602 action, “Towards a European Network on Chemical Weather Forecasting and Information Systems”. The portal includes an access to a substantial number (currently 21) of available chemical weather forecasting systems and their numerical forecasts; these cover in total more than 30 regions in Europe. This portal can be used, e.g., to find out, which services are available for a specific domain, for specific source categories or for specific pollutants. The portal currently expands its functionalities to allow for a harmonized presentation and inter-comparison of the various available forecasts, as well as for the computation of model ensemble predictions. It provides functions for obtaining relevant supplementary information, e.g., using the Model Documentation System of the European Environmental Agency. The new portal is an open access system, through which chemical weather forecasts can be added to the system, and the predictions can be accessed, analysed and inter-compared. Such a single point of reference for the European chemical weather forecasting information has previously not been in operation. We present the characteristics of the new portal, and discuss how this activity complements the GEMS and PROMOTE air quality forecasting portals.