Operational chemical weather forecasting with the ECCC online Regional Air Quality Deterministic Prediction System version 023 (RAQDPS023) – Part 1: system description

Moran, Michael D.; Savic-Jovcic, Verica; Stroud, Craig A.; Ménard, Sylvain; Gong, Wanmin; Zhang, Junhua; Zheng, Qiong; Chen, Jack; Akingunola, Ayodeji; Lupu, Alexandru; Menelaou, Konstantinos; Munoz-Alpizar, Rodrigo

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-4137-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-4137-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-4137-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 10

Model description paper

|

20 May 2026

Model description paper |

| 20 May 2026

Operational chemical weather forecasting with the ECCC online Regional Air Quality Deterministic Prediction System version 023 (RAQDPS023) – Part 1: system description

Michael D. Moran, Verica Savic-Jovcic, Craig A. Stroud, Sylvain Ménard, Wanmin Gong, Junhua Zhang, Qiong Zheng, Jack Chen, Ayodeji Akingunola, Alexandru Lupu, Konstantinos Menelaou, and Rodrigo Munoz-Alpizar

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-4137-2026-supplement

Model code and software

Global Environmental Multiscale model‒Modelling Atmospheric CHemistry (GEM-MACH) version 3.1.0.0 Verica Savic-Jovcic and Michael D. Moran https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15330612

GEM-MACHv3.1.1.2 GEM-MACH development team https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13952893

Canadian Fire Emissions Prediction System (CFFEPS) v4.1 Kerry Anderson and Jack Chen https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15305591

Version 5.1 package for the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model (ECCC-ASTD-MRD/gem: 5.1.0) Environment and Climate Change Canada https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17782580

Short summary

Canada's weather agency uses an online chemical weather forecast system to produce forecasts of key air pollutants over North America. Here we describe two recent versions of this Regional Air Quality Deterministic Prediction System (RAQDPS), including the meteorological host model, embedded chemistry module, and two downstream systems. Three simplifications to reduce run time are also described. A companion paper presents results from a comprehensive, 5-year evaluation of RAQDPS predictions.