November 29 - December 1, 2011, Bolger Center, Potomac, MD

Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Daewon Byun

The goal of the International Workshop on Air Quality Forecasting Research (IWAQFR) is to provide a venue for the discussion of science issues and advancements related to air quality forecasting. Workshop objectives include improving operational air quality forecasts, promoting collaborations among air quality forecasting researchers and practitioners, and nurturing an international air quality forecasting community.

This 2011 workshop is the third in a series of annual workshops. The first workshop in 2009 was sponsored by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and held in Boulder, CO. The second workshop in 2010 was sponsored by Environment Canada's Meteorological Service and held in Quebec City, Canada.

The audiences of the IWAQFR include:

• Those directly involved in developing operational air quality forecast models;
• Those involved in research specifically targeted at supporting operational forecasts;
• Those working to improve predictive capabilities in areas of particular interest to air quality forecasting; and
• Operational users of air quality forecast models.

The workshop consists of a Plenary Session, 3 Keynotes, 5 Theme Areas with oral presentations, and a poster session. Each oral session will include ample time for general discussion.

Plenary Session

• International Forecasting Perspectives
  Chairs: Veronique Bouchet (Environment Canada) and James Meagher (NOAA)
  • Perspective from Europe: Liisa Jalkanen, World Meteorological Organization
  • Perspective from Mexico: Augustin Garcia-Reynoso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • Perspective from The People's Republic of China: Xiao-Ye Zhang, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences
  • Perspective from Australia: Martin Cope, Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research
  • Perspective from Canada: Veronique Bouchet, Environment Canada
  • Perspective from the United States: Ivanka Stajner, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA

Keynotes

• "AQ perspectives from Japan and response/impact of the recent Earthquake/Tsunami" Seiji Sugata of National Institute for Environment Studies, Japan
• "Closer Linkage of Air Quality/Weather/Climate Predictions," Gregory Carmichael, University of Iowa
• "Pollen Forecasting," Mikhail Sofiev, Finnish Meteorological Institute

Theme Areas

• Particulate Matter Forecasting Challenges and Progress
  Chairs: Rohit Mathur (US EPA) and Rahul Zaveri (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

  Papers are solicited regarding issues in modeling the emission, nucleation, growth, and deliquescence of atmospheric particulate matter (PM), its spatial, diurnal and seasonal variation, pathways that contribute to changes in its composition, characteristics, mass and number concentrations, recent progress in modeling secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and the unique challenges of quantitative PM forecasting.

• Meteorological Modeling Needs For Air Quality Forecasting
  Chairs: Paula Davidson (NOAA) and Craig Stroud (Environment Canada)

  Papers are solicited which focus on describing meteorological advances needed to support improvements in air quality forecasting skill. Applicable topics include, but are not limited to, surface layer mixing, mesoscale coastline circulations, katabatic flows downwind of mountain ranges, cloud representations, precipitation scavenging and precipitation forecasting skill as related to PM forecasting.

• Towards Emissions Forecasting
  Chairs: Claire Granier (NOAA and LATMOS/IPSL, France) and Daniel Tong (NOAA)

  Papers are solicited that discuss the current status and evaluation of anthropogenic, biomass burning and natural emissions data at the regional and global scales, especially those efforts in emissions modeling research that are attempting to use near real-time datasets in a move towards a dynamic emissions approach better suited for air quality forecasting.

• Evaluation and Post-Processing
  Chairs: Bill Appleby (Environment Canada) and Stuart McKeen (NOAA)

  Papers are solicited related to the analysis and post-processing of air quality forecast model results. Of particular interest are model evaluations with data collected from recent intensive field studies as well as satellites and other remote sensing platforms, multi-model evaluations, evaluation systems, and near real-time post-processing strategies.

• Data Assimilation
  Chairs: Greg Carmichael (University of Iowa) and Paul Makar (Environment Canada)

  Papers are solicited regarding the integration of real-time in-situ and satellite data for air quality forecasts, retrospective objective analyses, emissions inversion, model error covariance, and emerging techniques in chemical data assimilation.