Atmospheric Composition monitoring (AC SAF)

Data on ozone and atmospheric chemistry

The AC SAF processes data on ozone, other trace gases, aerosols and ultraviolet data, obtained from satellite instrumentation.

Last Updated

14 July 2021

Published on

24 June 2020

SAF on Atmospheric Composition Monitoring website

SAF objectives

The AC SAF develops, produces, archives, validates and disseminates ozone and atmospheric chemistry products, to support the services of the EUMETSAT Member States in weather forecasting, as well as monitoring of ozone depletion, air quality and surface UV radiation.

In addition, these products contribute to the implementation of the EUMETSAT strategy in environmental monitoring of the atmosphere. This is achieved at the European level by contributing to the Copernicus activities, and in the global scale by implementing the global observations of the key atmospheric parameters, as recommended by the Integrated Global Atmospheric Chemistry Observations Theme (IGACO) within the IGOS framework.

Application example for monitoring sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels

The GOME-2 instrument aboard EUMETSAT's polar-orbiting Metop-A satellite is also used to monitor sulphur dioxide (SO2) levels from volcanic eruptions across the globe. This visualisation shows the SO2 plume from the eruption of Mt. Kasatochi in the Aleutian Island chain as it moves across the globe between 7-21 August 2008.

SAF leader and consortium

Leading entity

Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland

Consortium members

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany

Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), Germany

Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI), The Netherlands

Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut (DMI), Denmark

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Greece

Koninklijk Meteorologisch Instituut van België (RMI), Belgium

Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Belgium

Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), France

Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium

Mariolopoulos - Kanaginis Foundation (MKF), Greece

S and T Corporation, the Netherlands

Development Phase: June 1997–June 2002
Extended Development Phase: June 2002–February 2007
Continuous Development and Operations Phase: March 2007–February 2012
Second Continuous Development and Operations Phase: March 2012–February 2017
Third Continuous Development and Operations Phase: March 2017–February 2022

The following satellite data sources are/will be used to generate AC SAF products:

Metop (GOME-2, AVHRR, IASI)
NOAA (AVHRR)
Metop-SG (IASI-NG)
MTG-S (UVN and IRS)

The AC SAF maintains five operations centres and two archives. The quality of the products is monitored by dedicated validation centres.

FMI: Leading entity, central Helpdesk and User Services, wep pages. Development, processing, archiving and dissemination of offline UV products, archiving and dissemination of ozone profile and aerosol products, validation of offline UV products and total water vapor.
DLR: Development, processing, archiving and dissemination of GOME-2 total ozone and trace gas products.
KNMI: Development and processing of GOME-2 ozone profile and aerosol products and dissemination of NRT versions. Validation of aerosol products and ozone distribution by data assimilation.
BIRA-IASB: Development support for total and/or tropospheric O3, NO2, BrO, SO2, OClO, HCHO, HCOHCO products. Validation and quality assurance of NO2, BrO, OClO, HCHO, CHOCHO and IASI SO2 and HNO3 products. Quality assurance WWW service for users.
DMI: Development, processing and dissemination of NRT UV products.
AUTH and MKF: Validation and quality assurance of GOME-2 and IASI total ozone and SO2 products. WWW user service for quality of total ozone products. User services for WMO bulletins and Ozone assessments.
LATMOS and ULB: IASI codes and algorithms and support for IASI ozone, ozone profile, CO, SO2 and HNO3 implementation and processing. Validation and quality assurance of IASI SO2, CO and HNO3 products.
KMI: Validation of GOME-2 and IASI ozone profile products with balloon soundings.
DWD: Validation of GOME-2 and IASI ozone profile products and GOME-2 offline tropospheric ozone, NO2, HCHO and aerosol products with lidar and microwave radiometers and quality assurance. NRT quality assurance services.
EUMETSAT: processing and dissemination of IASI products.
S&T Corporation: Development and updates of BEAT and VISAN interfaces for GOME-2 and IASI L1 and L2 data.

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF); National Weather Services; World Meteorological Organization (WMO); Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and scientific research on ozone trace gases, aerosols and surface UV radiation.

AC SAF products

AC SAF Products

Related SAF pages

Satellite Application Facilities (SAFs)

Utilising specialist expertise from the Member States, Satellite Application Facilities (SAFs) are dedicated centres of excellence for processing satellite data.

Land Surface Analysis (LSA SAF)

The LSA SAF exploits remotely-sensed data on land, land-atmosphere interactions and biosphere applications.

Support to Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting (NWC SAF)

Nowcasting is a weather forecast for the next few hours, based on current information.

Climate monitoring (CM SAF)

The CM SAF generates and archives high-quality climate datasets.

Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP SAF)

The NWP SAF supports the interface between satellite data and European activities in NWP.

Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H SAF)

The H SAF generates and archives datasets and products for operational hydrological applications.

Ocean and Sea Ice (OSI SAF)

The OSI SAF provides comprehensive information on the ocean-atmosphere interface.

Radio Occultation Meteorology (ROM SAF)

The ROM SAF generates and archives high-quality GNSS Radio Occultation (RO) data for NWP.

Atmospheric Composition podcasts

The impact of COVID-19 on air quality...

In this podcast Stijn Vermoote (ECMWF/CAMS) and EUMETSAT Trainer Federico Fierli discuss how satellite observations have shown that the impact of COVID-19 is visible from space, due to improved air quality.

Monitoring Greenhouse Gases from Space

In this podcast Ruediger Lang (CO2 Project Scientist at EUMETSAT) and Greet Maenhout (European Commission) discuss monitoring greenhouse gas measurements from Space.

A year of fires 2019

In this podcast Mark Parrington (Senior Scientist at the ECMWF) joins the discussion on how satellites can monitor and deliver data on the environments affected by fires.