Forecasting the air quality in Greater Manchester, UK

As part of Manchester's Clean Air Plan, air quality modelling was carried out by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) using ADMS-Urban. TfGM then commissioned CERC to develop that modelling into an air quality forecasting service for Manchester's residents. CERC developed a bespoke service for Manchester, providing high-resolution air quality forecast maps and alerts to integrate within TfGM's Clean Air Greater Manchester website. The maps and alerts are issued daily, up to three days ahead. Alerts are based on the most polluted part of each of the ten local authority zones included. If more than 10% of a zone is above an alert threshold, then an alert is issued for that zone. Residents can sign up to receive free air quality text, email or voice alerts.

CERC’s air quality forecasting system for Manchester combines weather forecasts, European-scale pollution forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and very detailed dispersion modelling of pollution sources across Manchester using ADMS-Urban.