Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)

Overview of the Structure of GAW

Since its inception in 1992, GAW has matured and developed into a programme with support
from a large number of WMO Members. More than 100 countries have registered more than 800 stations with the GAW Station Information System (GAWSIS).

Various GAW expert groups and central facilities exist under the oversight of the WMO Commission for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) and its Environmental Pollution and Atmospheric Chemistry Scientific Steering Committee (EPAC SSC, as of CAS-16 Session). These comprise as of January 2014:

• 7 Scientific Advisory Groups (SAGs) to organise and co-ordinate GAW activities by
  parameter, and the Expert Teams on World Data Centres (ET-WDC) and Near-Real-Time
  Chemical Data Transfer (ET-NRT CDT).
  
• 4 Quality Assurance/Science Activity Centres (QA/SACs) perform network-wide data
  quality and science-related functions.
• 35 Central Calibration Laboratories (CCLs) and World and Regional Calibration Centres
  (WCCs, RCCs) maintain calibration standards and provide instrument calibrations and
  training to the stations.
• 6 World Data Centres archive the observational data and metadata, which are integrated by the GAW Station Information System (GAWSIS).

Several organizations operate a number of CCLs and WCCs at the same time.