We contribute to the development of the ECMWF IFS model for the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) by implementing and developing the stratospheric chemistry module which was originally developed for BASCOE. This allows CAMS to provide forecasts - and eventually analyses - of the chemical compounds which cause ozone depletion in the stratosphere, and enables a better monitoring of the ozone layer.

The first succesful implementation was described by
- Huijnen, V., Flemming, J., Chabrillat, S., Errera, Q., Christophe, Y., Blechschmidt, A.-M., Richter, A., & Eskes, H. (2016). C-IFS-CB05-BASCOE: stratospheric chemistry in the Integrated Forecasting System of ECMWF. Geoscientific Model Development, 9(9), 3071-3091. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3071-2016 (Belgian institutional Open Access repository for Federal Science)
On 27 June 2023, an updated implementation (IFS Cycle 48R1) became operational to generate the CAMS near-real time analyses and short-term forecasts. This achievement is explained in more detail in a press release. The model implementation was described and validated by
- Eskes, H., Tsikerdekis, A., Ades, M., Alexe, M., Benedictow, A. C., Bennouna, Y., Blake, L., Bouarar, I., Chabrillat, S., Engelen, R., Errera, Q., Flemming, J., Garrigues, S., Griesfeller, J., Huijnen, V., Ilić, L., Inness, A., Kapsomenakis, J., Kipling, Z., … Peuch, V.-H. (2024). Technical note: Evaluation of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Cy48R1 upgrade of June 2023. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24(16), 9475-9514. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9475-2024 (Belgian institutional Open Access repository for Federal Science)
The latest developments include:
- Chabrillat, S., Minganti, D., Huijnen, V., & Remy, S. (2023). Report documenting the changes in PSC parameterization and improvements of ozone hole forecasts. Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. https://doi.org/10.24380/2nxv-h84f (Belgian institutional Open Access repository for Federal Science)
- Minganti, D., Chabrillat, S., Bingen, C., Huijnen, V., Remy, S., Metzger, S., Williams, J., & Flemming, J. (2025). Optimization of the calculation of the photodissociation rates in the stratosphere in the BASCOE module of the IFS-COMPO. Copernicus GmbH. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-11188
- Bingen, C., Rémy, S., Chabrillat, S., Minganti, D., Errera, Q., Huijnen, V., Metzger, S., Williams, J., & Flemming, J. (2025). Coupling of stratospheric aerosol and chemistry in IFS-COMPO: use of online aerosol information in the stratospheric heterogeneous chemistry. Copernicus GmbH. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12780
This work is currently done under contract CAMS2_35 (2021-2024). This first contract for initial implementation was CAMS_42 (2016-2021).
Currently contributing scientists are Simon Chabrillat, Daniele Minganti and Christine Bingen in BIRA-IASB team D34.