Two scientific workshops on Hg and POPs were jointly organized by Meteorological Synthesizing Center-East (MSC-E) and the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (TF HTAP) in April 2021. The workshops were aimed at development of a program of future Hg and POP activities within TF HTAP. They were particularly focused on (i) anticipating assessment needs of the LRTAP, Minamata, and Stockholm Conventions; (ii) reviewing progress made in other forums, including recent AMAP assessments; (iii) identifying cooperative activities that can be undertaken in the short term (2 years) and longer term (4-5 years) to improve our understanding and ability to estimate Hg and POPs pollution levels, trends and source attribution.   Read more…

Cooperation with maritime conventions (OSPAR, HELCOM)

MSC-E continued cooperation with the OSPAR and HELCOM marine conventions. OSPAR is focused on protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. HELCOM was established to protect environment of the Baltic Sea area.  In 2021 evaluated atmospheric loads of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Hg, Cu) and POPs (HCB, PBDE) long-term trends of atmospheric pollution and source attribution for the OSPAR regions of the North-East Atlantic and for the Baltic Sea and its sub-basins. It is important to note that long-range trends of atmospheric loads of the second priority metals (Cu) to the Baltic Sea was be assessed for the first time.

Case Study

The Meteorological Synthesizing Center-East (MSC-E) has been conducting a number of country-specific case studies for over 10 years with the support of the Task Force on Measurements and Modeling (TFMM). Objective of the study is to provide the counties with detailed information on pollution levels in addition to the regular information generated within EMEP. The countries receive detailed data on pollution levels with fine spatial resolution, source apportionment of pollution for provinces and cities, contribution of emission sectors and large point sources etc. In 2020, within the framework of the Case Study, a project to assessment the pollution of Germany was completed. The results of this work are presented in the Joint Report of MSC-E and German Environment Agency.