Coupling environmental data and simulation models for software integration

European framework for online integrated air quality and meteorology modeling (EuMetChem) focuses on a new generation of online integrated Atmospheric Chemical Transport (ACT) and Meteorology (Numerical Weather Prediction and Climate) modeling with two-way interactions between different atmospheric processes including chemistry (both gases and aerosols), clouds, radiation, boundary layer, emissions, meteorology and climate. Two application areas of the integrated modeling are considered: (i) improved numerical weather prediction (NWP) and chemical weather forecasting (CWF) with short-term feedbacks of aerosols and chemistry on meteorological variables, and (ii) two-way interactions between atmospheric pollution/ composition and climate variability/change. The framework consists of four working groups namely: 1) Strategy and framework for online integrated modeling; 2) Interactions, parameterizations and feedback mechanisms; 3) Chemical data assimilation in integrated models; and finally 4) Evaluation, validation, and applications. Establishment of such a European framework (involving also key American experts) enables the EU to develop world class capabilities in integrated ACT/NWP-Climate modeling systems, including research, forecasting and education. 8.2.2. Collaborations with Major European Organizations Partner: ERCIM working group “Environmental Modeling”. The working group gathers laboratories working on developing models, processing environmental data or data assimilation. 8.3. International Initiatives 8.3.1. Inria International Partners 8.3.1.1. Informal International Partners Partner: Chilean meteorological office (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile) The partner produces its operational air quality forecasts with Polyphemus. The 3-day forecasts essentially cover Santiago. The forecasts are accessible online in the form of maps, time series and video (http://www.meteochile.gob.cl/modeloPOLYPHEMUS.php). Partner: Marine Hydrophysical Institute http://mhi.nas.gov.ua/eng/, Ukraine. The collaboration concerns the study of the Black Sea surface circulation and the issue of image assimilation in forecasting models. Partner: IBM Research, Dublin, Ireland The collaboration addresses the assimilation of classical observations as well as images, with application to geophysics. New assimilation methods are developed, mainly based on minimax filtering. 8.4. International Research Visitors 8.4.1. Visits of International Scientists • Sergiy Zhuk, IBM, Dublin Research Lab, Ireland, September 2013.