NOAA Air Quality Program: National Air Quality Forecast Capability

The National Air Quality Forecast Capability, NAQFC, is the NOAA/National Weather Service Air Quality program. It provides air quality information to its partner agencies and the public to further the NWS mission of protecting life and property and enhancing the national economy. NAQFC closely collaborates with the EPA and state and local AQ agencies and regularly collects AQ forecasters’ needs through the annual AQ forecasters focus group workshop.

Operational air quality forecast guidance NAQFC develops and disseminates includes ozone, fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5), smoke, and dust. The graphical forecast guidance is available at https://digital.mdl.nws.noaa.gov/airquality/. This data is taken into account by EPA and state and local agencies when they issue official Air Quality Index (AQI) forecasts or alerts.

This system is expecting a major upgrade, including the online coupling of the atmospheric model with CMAQ in 2024. This presentation will provide an overview of NAQFC and introduce various ongoing research for future implementations, including data assimilation of in-situ and remote sensing observations.