Objectives
The overall goal of GMOS is to develop a coordinated global observation system for mercury, including ground-based stations at high altitude and sea level locations, ad-hoc oceanographic cruises over the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and free tropospheric mercury measurements. This will then provide high quality data for the validation and application of regional and global scale atmospheric models, to give a firm basis for future policy development and implementation.
The specific objectives of GMOS are:
| a) | To establish a Global Observation System for Mercury able to provide ambient concentrations and deposition fluxes of mercury species around the world, by combining observations from permanent ground-based stations, and from oceanographic and UTLS measurement campaigns. |
| b) | To validate regional and global scale atmospheric mercury modelling systems able to predict the temporal variations and spatial distributions of ambient concentrations of atmospheric mercury, and Hg fluxes to and from terrestrial and aquatic receptors. |
| c) | To evaluate and identify source-receptor relationships at country scale and their temporal trends for current and projected scenarios of mercury emissions from anthropogenic and natural sources. |
| d) | To develop interoperable tools to allow the sharing of observational and models output data produced by GMOS, for the purposes of research and policy development and implementation, This will also support the advances in scientific understanding in the nine Societal Benefit Areas (SBA) established in GEOSS. |
| e) | During the GMOS development it will be investigated the possibility of transition of GMOS infrastructure to an operational research (ESFRI) infrastructure. |
GMOS will closely cooperate with major international programs including the UNEP Global Partnership Area on Atmospheric Mercury Transport and Fate Research (UNEP F&T), the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants (TF HTAP) of the UNECE-LRTAP convention, the GEO Task HE-09-02d "Global Monitoring Plan for Atmospheric Mercury" and AMAP. The results of past EU funded projects (i.e., MAMCS, MOE, MERCYMS) will provide a solid basis of knowledge in terms of state-of-the-art atmospheric models, monitoring methodologies, interoperable tools management and environmental policy analysis instruments