Title: New improvements on the OPANA model by using World Wide Web resources

Authors: R. San Jose, I. Salas, J.L. Perez, D. Camara, R.M. Gonzalez

Addresses: Environmental Software and Modelling Group, Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain. Environmental Software and Modelling Group, Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain. Environmental Software and Modelling Group, Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain. Environmental Software and Modelling Group, Computer Science School, Technical University of Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain. Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, Complutense University of Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Abstract: In recent years, an extraordinary interest has grown within the scientific community to improve the operational versions of complex mesoscale urban and regional models. One of the most important limitations of the operational versions of such types of models are found in the convenient updating of boundary conditions for sufficiently long forecasting periods. Downloading boundary conditions from continental models is an expensive task since the amount of data is usually quite high and only specialised centres can afford it. In this contribution, we present an internet/JAVA OPANA application which makes use of vertical meteorological soundings from the MRF/AVN global meteorological models. This solution has been found to be very reliable and user-oriented. The quality of the forecasts has been increased, particularly for variable weather conditions and the forecasting horizon has been extended up to ten days.

Keywords: air quality; AQMS; boundary conditions; JAVA; mesoscale; MRF/AVN; OPANA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2001.000647

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2001 Vol.16 No.1/2/3/4/5/6, pp.528-536

Published online: 07 Jul 2003 *

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