Finnish Meteorological Institute

The Finnish Meteorological Institute ( _fi. Ilmatieteen laitos, _sv. Meteorologiska institutet, or simply "FMI") is the government agency responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. It is a part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (Finnish: "Liikenne- ja viestintäministeriö") but it operates semi-autonomously.

The Institute is an impartial research and service organisation with expertise covering a wide range of atmospheric science activities other than gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts. The headquarters of the Institute is in Kumpula Campus, Helsinki, Finland.

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The number of full-time staff of the Finnish Meteorological Institute is about 540. Permanent staff members account for about 2/3 of the Institute's personnel and those with contractual posts account for the remainder. The Institute operates in on a round-the-clock basis and about 30 percent of the full-time staff work in shifts.

54 percent of the staff have university degrees and 15 percent have a licentiate or PhD degree. The average age of the staff is 43 years.

Air quality activities

The Finnish Meteorological Institute has investigated air quality processes and air pollution prevention techniques since the early 1970s. Their staff members have comprehensive competence within the areas of meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. Integrated work is done in cooperation with many other European research institutes and universities.

The air quality activities conducted by the Institute include:

* Research, testing and development of air quality measuring methods and equipment.
* Development of air pollutant emission inventories.
* Development of air pollution dispersion models [cite book | author=Turner, D.B. | title=Workbook of atmospheric dispersion estimates: an introduction to dispersion modeling| edition=2nd Edition| publisher=CRC Press | year=1994 | id=ISBN 1-56670-023-X [http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=L1023&parent_id=&pc= www.crcpress.com] ] [cite book|author=Beychok, Milton R.|title=Fundamentals Of Stack Gas Dispersion|edition=4th Edition|publisher=author-published|year=2005|id=ISBN 0-9644588-0-2 [http://www.air-dispersion.com www.air-dispersion.com] ]
* Performing chemical analyses of air quality.
* Study and development of air pollution prevention techniques.

The suite of local-scale (0 - 30 km) dispersion models available at the Institute includes:

* An urban area, multiple-source dispersion model.
* Vehicular pollution line-source dispersion models.
* Dispersion models for hazardous materials.
* Dispersion models for odorous compounds.

Dispersion models for larger scales (30 to 3000 km) are also available.

References

See also

*Atmospheric dispersion modeling
*Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models
*Czech Hydrometeorological Institute
*National Center for Atmospheric Research
*National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark
*NILU, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research
*Roadway air dispersion modeling
*SMHI
*TA Luft
*UK Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling Liaison Committee
*UK Dispersion Modelling Bureau
*University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

External links

* [http://www.fmi.fi/en Official website]
* [http://www.mintc.fi/ Ministry of Transport and Communications Finland]