Past Events

Twenty-third NATO/CCMS
International Technical Meeting
on Air Pollution Modelling
and its Application

September 28 - October 2, 1998, Varna, Bulgaria

The 23rd NATO/CCMS ITM on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application gathered in Varna, Bulgaria 120 participants from 30 countries for the week 28 September - 2 October 1998. The accommodation at the Riviera Holiday Club north of Varna was excellent and the conference hall with open walls to the park and perfect acoustics gave the opportunity to work and enjoy the autumn sunshine at the same time. Local hosts were Prof. Dimiter Syrakov and Dr Ekaterina Batchvarova from the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The opening of the conference was a nice surprise - after the condensed speech of the Scientific Secretary General of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Prof. Naum Iakimov and the welcome from the local hosts, the Secretary of the ITM Dr Sven-Erik Gryning announced the start of the conference and a children choir from Varna gave short lively concert. The Bulgarian, Italian, English and other songs displayed the warm attitude of the Bulgarian people and touched the participants.

At this ITM, five key topics were considered:

  1. Integrated Regional Modelling (local effects, mesoscale phenomena, regional modelling, one and two way nesting, application of existing models). In this topic Dr S. T. Rao from the University of New York gave invited talk on an integrated modelling and observational approach for designing ozone control strategies for the Eastern U. S. There were 20 oral presentations and 13 posters covering this topic, traditional for ITM.

  2. Global and Long-Range Transport (synoptic, hemispheric & global scales, application of existing models). Dr J. Feichter from the Max-Plank-Institute for Meteorology gave invited talk on the calculated distribution, radiative f orcing and climate response of sulphate and carbonaceous aerosol particles from fossil fuel combustion. Seven oral and 3 poster presentations, as well as a session from 6 papers on the European tracer experiment project (ETEX) contributed to this topic.

  3. New Developments (microscale to global scale, new models, new extensions to existing models). Prof. S. Panchev from the University of Sofia was invited to present a review on the chaotic advection and geophysical applications. There were 22 oral and 4 poster contributions to this topic.

  4. Accidental Releases (toxic and radioactive atmospheric releases, emergency warning or response system). The interest for this topic has decreased over the last years. An evidence of this was the relatively small contribution to it - 5 oral and 3 poster presentations.

  5. Model Assessment and Verification (model verification, comparison of model results, design of field experiments, use of on-site meteorological data). The need of widely tested models, sets of data for validation and common procedures for the comparisons between models and data was discussed and the achievements within the topic during the last years were presented in 16 oral and 13 poster presentations. The invited talk on the topic covered results of the modelling of deposition of acid fog to high elevation forests by Dr Walmsley form the Atmospheric Environment Service in Canada and was presented by Dr. Gong.

The 23rd ITM was characterised by the participation of many young scientists. Prof. Griffiths from UMIST, Manchester, UK ensured the participation of an international group of PhD students. Many young scientists from Italy, Germany, France and other countries also combined the important scientific event with the opportunity to visit Bulgaria.

Nessebar The Centre for International Meetings (CIM) organised a number of entertainments for the participants in the conference: a trip from Sofia to Varna crossing the country and visiting historical places, a cocktail party, a folklore dinner, a visit to Varna (where a 6 000-year-old gold jewellery treasure is found and exposed in the archaeological museum), an official dinner in the Casino of the Albena resort and a visit in the end of the conference to the picturesque town of Nessebar.

The host for the next, the Millennium, 24th ITM turns to be USA. Dr Frank Schiermeier from Atmospheric Sciences Modeling Division of U.S. EPA/NOAA announced in Varna the place for it: the 1-mile-altitude city.





Past Events

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