Real time, high resolution regional weather and air quality forecasting system in West Macedonia, Greece

This paper presents an overview of the University of Western Macedonia's (UoWM) operational model for predicting the prevailing meteorological and air quality conditions on a high resolution (2 × 2 km²) scale. The MM5 – SMOKE – CMAQ has been suitably parameterised with respect to the particular geographical and climatic characteristics of the region of West Macedonia. The system is designed to produce hourly forecasts for a 72 h horizon in addition to air quality indices and comparisons to the current EC and national regulatory limits. The performance of the system against observational data is discussed.