In the framework of COST, there has been an international action, COST 710, aimed at Harmonisation in the pre-processing of meteorological data for dispersion models.
COST 710 has been followed by a related action, COST 715, concerning Urban Meteorology applied to Air Pollution Problems.
A somewhat related action, COST 732, was started in 2005. COST 732 is entitled Quality Assurance and Improvement of Microscale Meteorological Models.
The present page is the entry to a set of Web pages concerning COST 710 (Harmonisation). Another set of Web pages concerns COST 715 (Urban Meteorology). These two sets of pages are maintained by the Department of Atmospheric Environment, NERI which was one of the participating institutions in both actions.
Information on the recent COST 732 is available through an entry at the offical COST site.
COST is the acronyme (in French) for "European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research". It is a framework for international research and development cooperation, allowing to coordinate national research at European level. COST does not fund research as such, but coordination of research. COST includes as member states countries from the European Union, and a number of other European countries. More information is available at the official COST site. See also the section later on this page on COST links.
Up-to-date dispersion models, which have a better representation of atmospheric physics than the previous models, require as meteorological input some fundamental atmospheric boundary-layer parameters that are not directly measured. These parameters include surface heat flux, friction velocity and boundary-layer height.
In 1994, the COST Technical Committee on Meteorology started an action on meteorological preprocessors used to provide such parameters. The action was labelled COST 710, "Harmonisation in the pre-processing of meteorological data for dispersion models". The action has ended, and the final report has been published (autumn 1998). Even after the end of the action, the present set of Web pages is being maintained in order to inform on the results of the action.
A popular description of the activities in COST 710 is available. The description was written by G. Cosemans, J. Erbrink, B.E.A. Fisher, J.G. Kretzschmar and D.J. Thomson in 1996. There is access to more technically oriented information from the sections below.
Another COST action which is related to COST 710 was initiated in 1998. The action was designated COST 715 and had the title Urban Meteorology applied to Air Pollution Problems.
Although the complete final report is not available electronically, the major part of
the final report is available for download.
The report provides an overview of preprocessing methods as well as a
number of recommendations for the use of meteorological preprocessors.
Note that in August 2005 reports from several of the working groups have become available in
electronic format.
Other results of the action are listed below
A workshop on "Determination of the Mixing Height - Current Progress and Problems" was held at Risø, Denmark, October 1-3, 1997.It was organised by EURASAP, and can be seen as a follow-up on the work of the COST 710 working group on mixing height.
The proceedings of the workshop have been printed as a report. Bibliographic information and the table of contents of the report are available.
Note also that the final report of the COST 710 Working group on Mixing layer depth is available.
The chairman of COST 710 was Bernhard Fisher, Greenwich University (UK), and the vice
chairman Dr. J. Kretzschmar, VITO (Belgium).
The secretary of COST 710 was Prof. A. Hocevar, DG XII/B/1.
Within COST 710 there were four working groups:
These working groups have investigated various methods for preprocessing of meteorological data. The findings and recommendations of the groups are reported in the final report of COST 710.
Note (March 2005): The address information below is not kept updated.
The addresses of the persons mentioned are as follows:
Nejedlik, Pavol Note from March 2005: Since 2001 Pavol Nejedlik is the COST Scientific Sectary for Meteorology. During the COST 710 action Jean Labrousse and Andrej Hocevar had this position. COST Office Av. Louise 149 ( 21/30 ) B-1050 Brussels BELGIUM Tel:+32 2 5333830 Fax:+32 2 5333890 E-mail: pnejedlik@cost.esf.org Erbrink, Hans NV KEMA P.O. Box 9035 6800 ET Arnhem The Netherlands Tel: +31 85 562545 Fax: +31 85 515022 E-mail: Erbrink@MTA6.KEMA.nl Fisher, Bernard School of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Greenwich Chatham Maritime, Medway Campus Kent ME4 4AW U.K. Tel: +44 181 331 9911 Fax: +44 181 331 9805 E-mail: B.E.A.Fisher@greenwich.ac.uk Kretzschmar, Jan VITO Boeretang 200 B-2400 Mol Belgium Tel: +44 181 316 9911 Fax: +32 14 32 11 85 E-mail: kretzscj@vito.be Olesen, Helge Rørdam National Environmental Research Institute P.O. Box 358 4000 Roskilde Denmark Tel: +45 46301200 Fax: +45 46301214 E-mail: hro@dmu.dk Pechinger, Ulrike Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics Hohe Warte 38 A-1190 Vienna Austria Tel: +43 1 36 0 26 2402 Fax: +43 1 36 0 26 2474 E-mail: pechinger@zamg.ac.at Seibert, Petra Institut für Meteorologie und Physik Universität für Bodenkultur Türkenschanzstr. 18 A-1180 Wien Austria Tel: +43 1 4705820-20 Fax: +43 1 4705820-60 E-mail: seibert@mail.boku.at Szepesi , D.J. Levegokörnyezeti Bt. Katona J. u. 41 V/25 H-1137 Budapest Hungary Tel: +36 1 111 5831 Fax: +36 1 132 3964 E-mail: h12506sze@ella.hu
Related pages
Initiative on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion
Modelling for Regulatory Purposes
COST 715 home page ( Urban Meteorology applied to Air Pollution
Problems)
This page is maintained by Helge Rørdam
Olesen
It was last modified on August 2, 2005
Published by the Department of Atmospheric Environment, National Environmental Research Institute (Denmark)