CERC news

Amines chemistry module online training course offered by CERC

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC are pleased to announce that we offer an updated online training course for ADMS, specifically for the amine chemistry module.

The course covers:

Introduction to the atmospheric chemistry of amines and N-amine formation
Overview of the amine chemistry scheme in ADMS
Using the ADMS amine chemistry module
The Amine Chemistry User Input Tool

More information about the course can be found here.

CERC's online training courses are extremely popular both in the UK and internationally. If you would like further information about the training courses offered by CERC, and how to book a place, please visit the training schedule on the CERC website, or email training@cerc.co.uk.

CERC are currently carrying out the Environment Agency Carbon Capture Atmospheric N Amines Formation Estimation Tools (CANFET) project. This involves gathering evidence on alternative models for estimating N-amines and devising and applying a methodology for model intercomparison.

CERC previously carried out another Environment Agency-led research project on amine chemistry modelling: Improving Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Air Quality Risk Assessment Techniques.

These and other aspects relating to the amines chemistry module will be covered at this year's ADMS 6 User Group Meeting in Bristol on 26^th November 2025.

Clean Air Routes London: a new interactive map for healthier walking and cycling routes

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC is proud to announce the launch of Clean Air Routes London, a free interactive map developed by Westminster City Council (WCC) and supported by Defra, designed to help people navigate London using routes with the best available air quality. Launched on World Car Free Day, the tool encourages people to walk or cycle while avoiding areas with high pollution levels. By entering a start and end point, users receive up to three route options ranked by air quality, helping them choose the healthiest journey.

Clean Air Routes London is underpinned by CERC's airTEXT air quality forecasting system, which uses our world-leading ADMS-Urban dispersion model to generate street scale forecasts for key pollutants including NO₂ and PM_2.5. The forecasts are updated twice daily and are calibrated using real-time air quality measurements. Under the project, CERC developed an API for WCC delivering near-instant results for walking and cycling routes across Greater London. The API ranks routes based on personal air pollution exposure, which is calculated using journey time, route geometry, and hourly airTEXT pollution data, allowing users to plan cleaner journeys up to three days in advance.

CERC has over 15 years of experience delivering air quality forecasting and alert services, including airTEXT, which serves over 22,000 subscribers across London and the South-East. Our expertise in air pollution modelling, software development, and cloud-based systems ensures that Clean Air Routes London is both scientifically robust and technically resilient.

Visit cleanairroutes.org to plan your next journey and discover cleaner, healthier routes across London!

CERC present research at the Harmo23 conference

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC are presenting recent research studies at the upcoming 23^rd international Harmo conference (Harmo23), to be held in Hamburg, Germany, from 15^th to 19^th September 2025. This conference series is part of an initiative aimed at harmonising dispersion modelling for regulatory purposes.

CERC's Associate Director of Software, Dr Martin Seaton, will present key results from the Thermal Transport of Air Pollution from Regulated Industries (TAPRI) project, commissioned by the English Environment Agency's Chief Scientist's Group. CERC defined thermal flow types and their characteristics, and analysed meteorological, land use and topographical data for selected cases to better understand thermal flows and model their air quality impacts.

CERC Scientist Dr Victoria Hamilton will present results from CERC's work on an inter-comparison of methods for modelling deposition of ammonia from intensive farms.

CERC also contributed to a third presentation at the conference, relating to the project for RIVM on benchmarking nitrogen deposition models.

Draft agendas now available for the ADMS User Group Meetings, 26-27 November 2025, Bristol

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

There is still time to book your tickets for the 2025 ADMS User Group Meetings, which will be held at M Shed, Bristol on 26th and 27th November.

ADMS 6 User Group Meeting, 26th November: view draft agenda
ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads User Group Meeting, 27th November: view draft agenda

Tickets are available to order through Eventbrite until 23:30 on Monday 10th November. Organisations with a valid software support contract are entitled to one or more tickets free of charge depending on the type of licence held.

Major new release of ADMS-Urban, ADMS-Roads & ADMS-Airport 5.1

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Version 5.1 is a major update of ADMS-Urban, ADMS-Roads and ADMS-Airport with many powerful new features to aid modelling, data processing and visualisation.

ADMS-Urban, ADMS-Roads and ADMS-Airport are comprehensive tools for investigating air pollution, taking account of complex urban morphology including street canyons and road tunnels.

ADMS-Roads is designed primarily for networks of roads that may be in combination with industrial sites, for instance small towns or rural road networks.

ADMS-Urban can model large urban areas providing output from street-scale to urban-scale.

ADMS-Airport has all the features of ADMS-Urban, and can also incorporate all relevant emission sources at airports including using algorithms designed specifically to model dispersion from aircraft engines.

New features include:

Urban Canopy and Advanced Street Canyon Mapper tools for faster calculation of urban morphology parameters without requiring separate GIS software
The latest emission factors from Defra's Emission Factor Toolkit, EFT 13.1
A verification mode for checking model inputs and generating information about the model run
A shape file (.shp) merging tool, including field adding, deleting and renaming
Compatibility with ADMS 6 .apl files
Plus many enhanced usability functions throughout the Mapper and interface.

All the new features are described in detail in the What's New? guides.

Users with support will get this version within the next few working days.

For further information on this release or any CERC products please contact us.

London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2022 released

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The latest version of the London Atmospheric Inventory (LAEI 2022) has been published on the London Datastore. The LAEI 2022 includes traffic flow and emissions data for nearly 80,000 roads in the Greater London area as well as emissions data for all other sources of air pollution defined on a 1-km grid. Data are provided for a 2022 base year with projections to 2025 and 2030.

The latest release shows a 23% reduction in NO_x emissions between 2019 and 2022, largely driven by reductions in road transport emissions, with emissions forecast to reduce by a further 29% by 2030. PM_2.5 emissions have reduced by 6% over the same period, while PM₁₀ emissions in 2022 remain broadly similar to 2019 levels.

The comprehensive data available in the LAEI allows CERC to carry out detailed air quality modelling for a wide range of current and future cases including air quality forecasting and the assessment of the impacts of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

The Consultancy team's first project using the 2022 LAEI will be to assess progress towards the aim set out in the City of London Air Quality Strategy 2025-2030 for over 90% of the Square Mile to meet an annual mean of 30 µg/m³ for nitrogen dioxide by 2030.

We will use ADMS-Urban to model the impact of all emissions in London. The impact of the Central London's complex urban topography on road traffic emissions will be taken into account using the ADMS Advanced Canyon and Tunnels options. Non-road emissions will be modelled using grid sources. The resulting 1-metre resolution concentration maps will then be calibrated using local monitoring data.

CERC has carried out similar assessments for the City of London annually since 2018. One aim of the previous air quality strategy was for 90% of the Square Mile to meet the national air quality standard for annual mean NO₂ of 40 µg/m³ by 2025. Over the past seven years, changes have included the introduction of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone, new traffic restrictions at Bank Junction, and the introduction of the Beech Street Zero Emissions Street, as well as changes brought about by the Covid pandemic. The effects of all of these changes on emissions were incorporated into CERC's modelling. The modelling showed that the percentage of the Square Mile meeting the standard increased from 30% in 2018 to 93% in 2020, since when it has remained approximately constant.

CERC working with Vodafone on Mayor of London’s Breathe London sensor network

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC is delighted to be part of the new consortium running the Mayor of London's Breathe London network. The consortium will coordinate all 136 existing air quality sensor sites across the capital, introducing advanced methodologies for sensor calibration and data quality assurance, and engaging key community groups and organisations such as schools, NHS Trusts and Local Authorities to make accurate air quality data available to everyone in London, and mobilise communities in the fight against toxic air.

CERC's role is to provide a robust and reliable operational calibration and quality control system, and secure online access to the current and historical NO2 and PM2.5 measurements through the Breathe London API. The network calibration system was developed using an innovative scale-separation technique pioneered by consortium members Professor Rod Jones and Dr Olalekan Popoola from the University of Cambridge. Amy Stidworthy from CERC's Forecasting and Data Services team explains the network calibration method and gives examples of comparisons with measurements from reference-standard instruments in this video.

The Breathe London Consortium is led by Vodafone, who also provide sensor connectivity and hosting infrastructure, and brings together leading experts in all aspects of air quality. Airly provides the sensors, Scotswolds provides expert oversight of sensor installation and data quality, Global Action Plan leads community engagement including the website, and Ricardo will conduct an independent annual review of sensor data quality.

Announcing the new phase of Breathe London, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: I am delighted that Vodafone will deliver the next stage of my pioneering Breathe London programme by leading a consortium of partners and utilising their technical expertise and advanced connectivity. Reducing London's air pollution is one of my top priorities and this advanced monitoring network will provide invaluable data to help organisations across the capital take action on air quality and protect public health.

You can read the full press release online.

Booking is now open for the ADMS User Group Meetings, 26-27 November 2025, Bristol

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

You can now book your tickets for the 2025 ADMS User Group Meetings, which will be held at the M Shed on 26th and 27th November.

The annual ADMS User Group Meetings are a great opportunity to hear the latest ADMS model news and advice from CERC consultants and model developers, to hear talks by model users about their own applications of the software, and to network with other model users.

Tickets are available to order through Eventbrite until 23:30 on Monday 10th November. Organisations with a valid software support contract are entitled to one or more tickets free of charge depending on the type of licence held. The draft programme will be published soon.

Calculating health impacts of air pollution in Oxfordshire

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Oxfordshire County Council are working with CERC and the University of Birmingham to calculate the air quality and health impacts of potential policy scenarios including the county and national Net Zero ambitions.

CERC are using ADMS-Urban to calculate detailed pollution maps across all of Oxfordshire in order to generate input data into the University of Birmingham's Air Quality Lifecourse Assessment Tool (AQ-LAT) which estimates ward-level impacts of PM_2.5 and NO₂ on health outcomes, mortality and associated healthcare costs.

The differences in the dispersion of pollutants in the City of Oxford compared to the rest of the county, which is largely rural, have been taken into account by using the Advanced Street Canyon and Urban Canopy tools in ADMS-Urban as well as varying area-wide dispersion parameters.

Base-year concentration maps have been generated and the concentrations averaged by Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) for use in AQ-LAT (see figure).

CERC are currently finalising the future scenario testing with Oxfordshire County Council. A baseline for 2035 using projected road and non-road emissions has been produced including proposed traffic filters, electrification of the bus fleet and Oxford City's Zero Emission Zone. The impact of additional policies, including the reduction of traffic, further electrification of the vehicle fleet and reductions in domestic wood burning, will be evaluated by adjusting the emissions, modelling the impact on ambient concentrations and calculating the resulting impact on health.

Online Training Courses Offered by CERC

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC are pleased to announce they now offer seven online courses:

The latest course to go online being ADMS-STAR.

The CERC online training courses have been extremely popular both in the UK and overseas. Here are a couple of recent comments from attendees:

".....thank you for the smooth registration process and help received prior to the course. We were very impressed with the quality of the slides and worked example material."

"I would like to give some praise in my report to your course which is very thorough and one of the best I have seen so far."

If you would like further information about the training courses offered by CERC, and how to book a place, please visit the training schedule on the CERC website, or email training@cerc.co.uk.

New Air Pollution Source Tool (APST) undergoing user trials

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC is carrying out user trials of its new Air Pollution Source Tool (APST). APST is CERC's new software tool for separating, for each hour, the air pollution concentration measurements from monitor/sensor networks into the component which is emitted from local sources and the component which arises from long-range transport due to more remote sources.

APST is a windows-based desktop application with a user-friendly interface, including integrated mapping, and a comprehensive user guide. APST includes automatic linkage to online UK monitoring datasets including the AURN and AQE networks, along with the option to include user-defined datasets (e.g. sensor data). Outputs include hourly and aggregated concentration data for each monitor/sensor apportioned into background and local components, and attractive graphics.

The user trials run until the end of February. If you are interested in taking part please contact us at software@cerc.co.uk. More details on APST can be found in the presentation given at the 2024 ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads User Group Meeting. APST is expected to be released later this year.

ADMS-Urban to be used in a NERC-funded West Midlands climate adaptation study

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

CERC are pleased to be collaborating with a multi-disciplined team on a new Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-funded project to combat the impact of climate change in the West Midlands. University of Birmingham (UoB) experts are working with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) on 'WM-Adapt', which will significantly enhance the West Midlands region's capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change in urban areas. CERC's role is to support the UoB team in their application of ADMS-Urban Temperature and Humidity for local climate modelling of the West Midlands.

WM-Adapt brings together UoB scientists from a range of disciplines (including engineering, environmental sciences and applied health sciences) with representatives from local government and the third sector at the Birmingham Voluntary Service Council. Climate adaptation experts Climate Sense are also key members of the team. More information about WM-Adapt can be found in the recent press release.

This work builds on CERC's previous collaborations with the University of Birmingham, for example the successful West Midlands Air Quality Improvement Programme (WM-Air) and the ongoing WM-NZ project, which is working towards providing evidence and tools that link net-zero policies more closely with positive health outcomes. Of relevance to WM-Adapt, Dr Jian Zhong (who has recently moved to the Centre for Advanced Simulation and Modelling at the University of Greenwich), has led research that applies ADMS-Urban to modelling temperatures over Birmingham at high (50 m) resolution. He has also published multiple papers demonstrating the use of ADMS-Urban for baseline and scenario air quality modelling of the West Midlands.

About the image: This shows near-surface air temperature perturbation at 50 m x 50 m resolution over Birmingham, UK July 2019 average, modelled using ADMS-Urban (taken from 'Modelling the urban heat island in Birmingham, UK at the neighbourhood scale', Zhong et al. EGU 2024.

2024 ADMS User Group Meetings – presentations are available to download

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Following this year's ADMS User Group Meetings, which took place in Cambridge on 4-5 December, electronic copies of the presentations are now available to download from the CERC website User Area. Model users with a valid support contract, including all annual licence holders, are entitled to register for password-protected access to the User Area. To register, or to be reminded of your password, click here.

CERC working with UK Environment Agency on Thermal Transport of Air Pollution from Regulated Industries (TAPRI) project

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

CERC is working with the UK Environment Agency on a six-month contract to contribute to a research project to assess the impacts of thermal air flows on the movement of pollutants.

Thermal winds are generated by horizontal temperature gradients. Over flat terrain, differences in surface temperature cause horizontal temperature gradients, for example near coastlines, resulting in sea and land breezes. Over sloping terrain, horizontal temperature gradients result from stable or unstable stratification, which can lead to downslope (katabatic) or upslope (anabatic) winds.

CERC are working with scientists in the Environment Agency's Chief Scientist's Group to define thermal flow types and their characteristics. We will analyse meteorological, land use and topographical data for selected 'pilot areas' to better understand thermal flows.

The team will explore different approaches that could be used to model air quality impacts of thermal flows. Multiple models will be explored, including KLAM-21 and ADMS. For some sites, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) data will be used.

This work was awarded to Air Quality Consultants (AQC) as part of Defra's Research Development & Evidence Framework Agreement. The work will be carried out by CERC in collaboration with AQC and John Moncrieff (University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences).

The image shows 'The Barber' katabatic wind that blows down the Grey Valley in Greymouth, New Zealand.

CERC attend conferences and workshops

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

It's a busy time of year for conferences and workshops. Many CERC staff are attending face to face meetings over the next few weeks.

This week, Dr Jenny Stocker is going to Birmingham for the UKRI/Met Office Clean Air Programme Conference. She will be presenting an overview of CERC's Multi-model Air Quality System (MAQS). Next week, Jenny will be at the Forum for Air Quality Modelling (FAIRMODE) technical meeting in Dublin, where she is actively involved in the Microscale Assessment and Sensors & Data-Fusion working groups.

Amy Stidworthy will be attending the Air Quality & Emissions show at the Birmingham NEC next week. Amy will present results from a study where inversion techniques have been used to combine ADMS-Urban modelling with measurements from a network of air quality sensors hosted on telecom infrastructure in the city of Glasgow. Then in early November, Amy will be travelling to Prague to present on the use of CAMS data in CERC's local air quality forecasting services as part of a workshop for CAMS users in the Czech Republic.

On 18^th October, Dr James O'Neill will be presenting at the Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee (ADMLC) and Institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM) seminar on the use of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) data in air quality modelling. Further information about this event can be found on an earlier post, including details of how to register before the 4^th October. Director Dr David Carruthers will be attending the seminar, contributing to discussions.

Later in October, Dr Chetan Lad and Dr Andrea Di Antonio will be at Routes to Clean Air in Birmingham, with its extensive programme covering current topics for assessing and delivering clean air. They look forward to talks on domestic and agricultural sources of pollution and high-resolution traffic emissions estimates.

Dr Catheryn Price and Rose Jackson are going to Manchester at the beginning of November to attend the Hazards Process Safety Conference. They are particularly interested in gaining further insight into the latest perspectives and knowledge on energy transition considerations, such as battery energy storage system (BESS) hazards, hydrogen production, carbon capture, and CO₂ and ammonia releases.