2 minute read
NPL and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have renewed their partnership, which began in 2010, with NPL fulfilling the role as Central Calibration Laboratory for non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) within the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme.
The WMO-GAW programme is focused on building and operating a continuous, coordinated global monitoring network. The goal is to provide global long-term trends in atmospheric composition to improve the scientific understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere and the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere.
The WMO-GAW’s mission is to organise, support and coordinate the global assessment of changes in the atmospheric chemical composition. The programme provides scientific information to improve the understanding of climate change and long-range cross-country air pollution to governments, policy makers and scientists supporting international conventions and agreements.
NPL plays a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy and reliability of these long-term datasets collected from all GAW stations by disseminating traceability to the international system of units (SI) through the provision of primary gas reference materials in high pressure cylinders.
With the renewal of these roles NPL has expanded its remit within the WMO-GAW programme to now cover all 10 NMHC gases and both the NOx gases of relevance to the network assuring more comprehensive data confidence across the network in the future.
10 Jun 2025