WMO SER 13 5"1 t­ WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION <elK SPECIAL ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT No. 13 Meteorology and the human environment Lectures presented at the twenty-ninth session of the WMO Executive Committee 1979 I WMO-NOeSI7\ Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization • Geneva • Switzerland Olf- 1571- © 1979, World Meteorological Organization ISBN 92-63-10517-0 NOTE The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. J. CON TEN T S Foreword ..................•................................... V Th e problem of air pollution and other aspects of e nvironmental pollution - Th e concept o f monitoring and regulating the quality of the environment, by Professor Ju. A. Izrael ........•....... 1 Climatic variability, environm ental change a nd human response , by Professor F. Kenneth Hare .......... ........ .............. 11 Climatology and fight against desertification, by Dr . F. Hashemi .......................... .... ............. 31 FOREWORD ItMeteorology and the human environment It was selected as the general theme for the scientific discussions at the twenty­ ninth session (1977) of the WMO Executive Committee. The Committee was fortunate in having three outstanding scientists to deliver lectures on this subject . Professor Ju. A. Izrael presented the first lecture, which was entitled ItThe problem of air pollution and other aspects of environmental pollutionltj Professor F. Kenneth Hare presented the second lecture, entitled ItClimatic variability, environmental change and human responseltj and Dr. F. Hashemi presented the third lecture, on It Climatology and fight against desertificationlt. The tex ts of these lectures are reproduced in the present publication. It gives me great pleasure to place on record my gratitude to Professor I z rael, Professor Hare and Dr. Hashemi for the time and effort they have devoted to the preparation of these excellent papers. D. A. DAVIES Secretary-General THE PROBLEM OF AIR POLLUTION AND OTHER ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION The concept of monitoring and regulating the quality of the environment by Professor Ju. A. Izrael Hydrometeorological Service of the U. S . S.R. The problem of man ' s pollution of t h e atmosphere and other parts of t he environment has b ecom e particularly acu te in t h e l ast few years . Research work has b een correspondingly intensified on such pollution and the r esultant changes in the composition of the a t mosphe r e . Of all the aspects of environmental pollution , contam­ ination of t he atmosphere would see m to present the most problems , l arge l y because it is difficul t to localize. This is important both from the point of view of the tech nical measures needed to purify the air for centres of population and industry , as well as from that of the possible emerge nce of wide-scale effects , from the spread of harmful trace substances over thousands of kilo­ metr es to actual changes in the Earth ' s climate. Air pollution has become an international problem. Here we shall consider some of the main trends in air pollution r e search. Atmosphe ric chemistry is concerned with the composition and chemical p rocesses and transformations in the atmosphere. It includes the study of substances in various states of aggregation - gaseous and solid substances and the chemistry of liquid precip­ itation . Several meteorol ogical processes and phenomena can be studied through the use of tracer techniques , as applied , for example , in nuclear meteorology. Of great importance is the applied research into air pollution caused by harmful substances in quantities that are damaging to every living thing in the environment as well as to the abiotic component of the biosphere. - 2 - The phrase "pollution of the biosphere" is used in connection with this applied research, the most important aspect of which is the study of the permeation of air-borne trace substances into other media and into the biota and of the resultant interaction' s effects. The atmosphere plays the role of a reservoir in which various impurities are transformed, as well as some natural components of the atmosphere; it is also a source of pollution for other media and acts as a "sink". Thus, when we speak of the study of air pollution in the broadest sense, taking into consideration the influence of pollutants from t he biota and abiotic component of the biosphere, there is justification for calling it the ecology of the atmosphere. The meteorological services of many of the world's countries have become more universal in recent years, establishing changes in the atmosphere connected with all of the above-mentioned trends. Besides studying naturally produced changes in the en­ vironment, meteorological services frequently organize observations of changes caused by man. The work of the Soviet Union ' s Hydrometeorological Service is along just s uch lines. The World Meteorological Organization is giving increasing attention to this aspect of meteorological and hydrological services' activities. Several of the WMO scientific programmes are aimed at tackling these very questions. For example, the new scientific programme, entitled the World Climate Programme, is directing a considerable eff ort towards explaining the possible climatic changes arising from human activities. It is ofte n necessary to organize additional observations in order to detect anthropogenic changes , as well as a special system of observations, assessment and analysis of the state of the biosphere , particularly i n terms of observations and monitoring of environmental pollution. These systems have been grouped under the general heading "monitoring" - monitoring of anthropogenic c.!2anges to the environment or monitoring o f environmental pollution L1,~/. It is important t o note that e ssent ially this monitoring does not constitute some fundamentally new observati on system requiring the organization of a new network of ob servati on stations, telecommunication lines, data-processing centres , etc. On the contrary , it forms a logical part of the universal service system of observation and monitoring of the state of the environment, a syste m which has already been developed , for example , in the Soviet Union and other countries , over many decades as hydrometeorological or meteorological services . It may even be a part of, or closely linked t~ the World Weather Watch of the World Meteorological Organization. Thus, the pollution-monitoring system can and should - 3 - be part of such a system or service which is already in existence, making use of its exp erience , its system of observation stations (if necessary, including the measurements of new e l e ments), telecom­ mun ication l ines and data-processing centres. The monitoring system for t he state of t h e environmen t is an information system ; the data obtained by it are essential for regulating the state of the environment , and for organizing controls on human activities. Let us consider the diagram of such an information system , a diagram which is applicable to a ny geophysi cal s e rvic~ including a hydro meteorologi cal one, and to t h e pollut i on observation system. Since the mo nitoring of pollution is a relati vely n e w e l e me n t in the environmental mo nitoring system , we shall consider i t in more detail. The expl a natio n s given b e l ow of t h e universal diagram will refer mainly to that of e nvironmental pollution monitoring which, like the_syste m of existing geoph ysical services , consists of the blocks L ~/: "Observations", " Assessment o f the existing state ", "Forecast " and " Asse ssment of the for e cast state". The re is a close, direct link between the blocks "Obser­ vations " and "Forecasts " as a forecast of the state of the environ­ ment can only b e made if sufficie ntly f ull information is availabl e about the existing state. This link is t wo-way, howe v e r, as the forecasting tre nd should also determine the organization of obs e rvatio ns. The "Observations" block r epres e n ts the organi zation of environmental obse r vations, whi c h s h ould i nclude those of sources of influence ( e .g. sources of pollution) , f actors of i nflue nce (po llutants a nd radiation in the e nvironm ent ), the natural b ackground state of e l e ments of the biosph ere and the changed state of t h ese ele ments and the responses of the biota to these inf lue nces ( see Fig. 1) . The task of organizi ng observations on t h e state of e l e ments of t h e environment is highly compl ex, as they must cover the widely varying aspects of the environment , as char­ acterized by data on the geophysical, physico-geographical and geoch e mical state, including data on po l lutants. The changes in the environment to be observed include the reactions of the abiotic component of the biosphere, including large-scale systems such as the Earth ' s climate. The observation system can include ground stations , fixed-route surveys and satellite systems , in which remote sensing technique~ such as radar and laser etc., can b e widely used. Observations based o n geophysical data are already used b y t h e geophysical s ervices of many countries of the world . In order to stu dy t h e background , undisturbed state of the environment , observations of the g l obal "background" present state of the biosphere must be organized in p l aces which are far removed from any loca l sources of inf luence.