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The Finnish Meteorological Institute has the mandate of
producing reliable information on the state of the atmosphere, and
its characteristics and phenomena, with the aim of promoting safety
and serving various needs of the public, industry and commerce, as
well as contributing to scientific ends. FMI makes observations of
the physical state of the atmosphere, its chemical composition, and
electromagnetic phenomena. FMI also develops and applies numerical
models in order to analyse and forecast various atmospheric
physical and chemical processes. FMI employs about 550 people,
about 150 of which are involved in research. The modelling teams
have extensive experience in developing and implementing various
numerical systems, from urban pollution models up to global
stratospheric ozone studies. Scientists from two divisions of the
FMI Research Department will be involved in GEMS: Meteorological
Research and Air Quality Research. The Meteorological Research
Division has its main task to create necessary qualifications and
tools for the atmospheric modelling and numerical weather
prediction, climate change studies, dispersion modelling framework
SILAM for the hazardous incidents, stratospheric ozone research,...
One of the key areas of investigations is development of the
high-resolution limited-area weather forecasting model within the
scope of international HIRLAM, ECMWF, and COST-717 projects.
Climate change studies are concentrated on future scenarios for
Finland, the carbon cycle, greenhouse gas balance and the effect of
changed climate onto the Baltic Sea cover, soil frost, etc.
Boundary layer research concentrates on specific issues of the
interaction between the atmosphere and the underlying surface for
various atmospheric conditions. The Air Quality Research Division
has as its main task to monitor, understand, model and report on
air quality and its influencing factors. This task is aided by
FMI’s work in meteorology and climatology, including data
collection and processing as well as scientific and technical
research. The Finnish government has designated FMI as the national
air quality expert. FMI is involved in many international
co-operative, research and assessment efforts. Current projects
involve the following activities: monitoring of air quality and
atmospheric composition (UN/ECE EMEP and IM, HELCOM/EGAP, WMO/GAW,
AMAP); research and development in air chemistry and aerosol
physics (ACCENT, EC/Environment): assessment and modelling of the
dispersion, transformation and deposition of airborne pollutants
from the local to the continental scale (e.g., inter-nordic
projects, SAPHIRE, FUMAPEX, OSCAR, PAMCHAR).
Prof. Jaakko Kukkonen is currently a Manager of Air
Quality Research department at the FMI that has a staff of 56
persons. He is Visiting Professor at the University of
Hertfordshire (Hatfield, United Kingdom), and Docent of Physics at
the University of Helsinki. He has worked in the field of
atmospheric physics and chemistry, including especially the
development, evaluation and application of mathematical models.
Particular areas of interest have been the development of
integrated modelling systems, the modelling of the dispersion of
particulate matter, the evaluation of population exposure and the
health effects of air pollution, and the consequence analysis
modelling of hazardous materials. Prof. Kukkonen is the author of
236 scientific publications; 49 of these have been published in
refereed international journals.
Dr. Mikhail Sofiev – currently a senior
scientist in Air Quality Research of FMI – started his career
at the EMEP modelling centre in 1992. He has developed and
implemented several regional and hemispheric atmospheric transport
models, including the DMAT model for European and hemispheric
transport of acidifying and toxic substances. Currently he is
responsible for further development of the Finnish national
emergency modelling framework SILAM and involved in several
European, Nordic and national research projects, being responsible
for dispersion model development, verification and application. Dr.
Sofiev is the author of over 70 scientific publications, including
25 refereed papers and 20 international reports, and has made ~50
oral and poster presentations at international
conferences.
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