The Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a partnership involving 80 countries, which provides reliable scientific data and information on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, its natural and anthropogenic change, and helps to improve the understanding of interactions between the atmosphere, the oceans and the biosphere.

One of the core tasks of the GAW programme is the coordination of the efforts of currently 28 global and more than 400 regional atmospheric monitoring stations to produce data that are relevant to climate change.

Mission statement
The mission of WCC-Empa and QA/SAC Switzerland is to improve and maintain the quality and public access of surface ozone, carbon monoxide, methane and carbon dioxide data measured at Global Atmosphere Watch stations, primarily through inter-comparison and calibration of instrumentation, one-to-one training and workshops, as well as continuous operational and stratetic support for the GAW programme, in order to contribute to the scientific basis of our understanding of climate change.

Currently (2011-2013), the GAW team at Empa is also involved in the CATCOS (Capacity Building and Twinning for Climate Observing Systems) project that is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) with MeteoSwiss as the coordinating partner. Within CATCOS, Empa is responsible for the implementation of greenhouse gas observation capabilities in Vietnam and Chile & associated twinning / support.

Contact

Please direct questions and/or comments about Empa’s GAW activities to Brigitte Buchmann (Head of section), Martin Steinbacher (QA/SAC Switzerland), or Christoph Zellweger (WCC-Empa).