The Enviro-PEEX(Next) on ECMWF HPC project entitled “Research and development for seamless modelling of meteorology – atmospheric composition on multi-scales for the Pan-Eurasian EXperiment (PEEX) domain for weather, air quality and climate applications” (Mar 2025 – Dec 2027) is led by the University of Helsinki.

The project overall objectives are focused on analysing the importance of the meteorology-chemistry/aerosols interactions and feedback, and on providing a way for development of efficient techniques for seamless coupling of numerical weather prediction (NWP) and atmospheric chemical transport (ACT) models via process-oriented parameterizations and feedback algorithms. Such coupling will improve the numerical weather prediction, climate and atmospheric composition forecasting. The project emphasis is primarily on the testing and evaluation of selected models of the PEEX-Modelling-Platform and sensitivity analyses the feedback mechanisms for weather, climate and atmospheric composition modelling.

The project is focused on modelling and analysis for: case studies/ episodes with physical and chemical weather downscaling forecasting to evaluate sensitivity of aerosol effects on meteorology, atmospheric composition and climate; episodes for weather, climate and air quality applications to evaluate possible effects; and testing parameterizations, meteorological and chemical initial and boundary conditions, etc.

The Partners/Teams, collaborating on this HPC project, are from the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (Ukraine), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Republic of Kazakhstan), Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (Germany), The Arctic University of Tromso (Norway), Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland), and coordinated by the University of Helsinki (Finland)

During the first year, within frameworks of the Enviro-PEEX(Next) on ECMWF project, the work continued on improvement of the concept of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment Modelling Platform (PEEX-MP). The PEEX-MP is one of key blocks of the PEEX Research Infrastructure. The modelling studies initiated and carried out / work in progress with employing modelling systems, mainly the Enviro-HIRLAM, but also the FLEXPART and PALM models included: (1) Studying indirect aerosol effects during heavy rain episodes in midlatitude deep cyclone synoptic conditions (with focus on geographical regions of Italy and Ukraine); (2) Integrated urban environmental modeling: from development to implementation (with focus on urban areas of cities Tromso and Oslo of Norway and city Jyväskylä of Finland); (3) Investigating urban heat island and their impacts on air pollution over Copenhagen metropolitan area of Denmark; (4) Impacts of ecological restoration on air quality and local meteorology in city of Lahti, Finland; (5) Seamless modelling of atmospheric state and composition under influence of cities in the Baltic Sea region; (6) Assessment of the current state of atmospheric air in the Atyrau region (Republic of Kazakhstan) in the sustainable development context.

Moreover, science education of younger generation of researchers with the Enviro-HIRLAM modelling system is continued. In particular, the Young Scientists School (YSS) on “Climate Change and Related Risks” to be held in a hybrid mode at the Fudan University, China during 6-24 Jul 2026. The YSS is focused on climate change, cities and anthropogenic impacts. The lecturing is focused on the climate change and urban climate effects, extreme weather events and their impacts, atmospheric environment and eco-health impacts, and AI-enabled sustainable development and climate resilience. The YSS will include also group/team work on practical exercises as small-scale research projects (SSRPs), and for the Enviro-HIRLAM model the SSRP is focused on evaluating the urban effects on meteorology.  On a perspective, the YSSs on “Multi-Scales and -Processes Integrated Modelling, Observations and Assessment for Environmental Applications” were included in 2 proposals (with COST Action, funded by EU and with TFK programme funded by Finland). In all these events, the lecturing on seamless modelling, and Enviro-HIRLAM SSRPs with focus on analysis of aerosol effects (direct, indirect, combined) on meteorology at regional-subregional-urbans scales – are included.

The annual status/ progress reports are available at https://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/emi-rd-projects/spfimahu-2025.

Text by Dr. Alexander Mahura, INAR – University of Helsinki, Finland