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The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute ( sv, Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut, abbreviated SMHI) is a Government agency in Sweden and operates under the Ministry of the Environment. SMHI has expertise within the areas of
meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
,
hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
and
oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dyna ...
, and has extensive service and business operations within these areas.


History

In 1873, ''Statens Meteorologiska Centralanstalt'' was founded, an autonomous part of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...
, but the first meteorological observations began on July 1, 1874. It was not until 1880 that the first forecasts were issued. The latter will be broadcast on Stockholm radio from 19 February 1924.. In 1908, the Hydrographic Office (''Hydrografiska byrån'', HB) was created. Its task is to scientifically map Sweden's freshwater and collaborate with the weather service in taking certain weather observations such as precipitation and snow cover. In 1919, the two services merged and became the ''Statens Meteorologisk-Hydrografiska Anstalt'' (SMHA). In 1945, the service was renamed ''Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut''. Prior to 1975 it was located in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropol ...
but after a decision taken in the
Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...
in 1971 it was relocated to Norrköping in 1975.


Staff and organisation

SMHI has offices in
Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has a ...
,
Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...
,
Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History T ...
and
Upplands Väsby Upplands Väsby () is a locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 149,463 inhabitants in 2020. History The municipality has a long history with clear traces of settlements from the pre-Christian times ...
, on top of its headquarter. To the Swedish public SMHI is mostly known for the
weather forecast Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th centu ...
s in the public-service radio provided by
Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...
. Many of the other major media companies in Sweden also buy weather forecasts from SMHI. SMHI has about 650 employees. The research staff includes some 100 scientists at the Research Unit, where the Rossby Centre is part of. The research division is divided into six units: * Meteorological prediction and analysis * Air quality * Oceanography * Hydrology * Rossby Centre (Regional and Global Climate Modelling) * Atmospheric Remote Sensing The regional and global climate modelling is at the Rossby Centre, which was established at SMHI in 1997. Environmental research spans all six research units. There is also a project for providing contributions to the HIRLAM (High Resolution Limited Area Model) project. The main goal of the research division is to support the Institute and the society with research and development. The scientists participate in many national and international research projects.


Air quality research

The air quality research unit of SMHI has 10 scientists, all of whom have expertise in air quality, atmospheric pollution transport, and
atmospheric pollution dispersion modelling Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with computer programs that include algorithms to solve the mathematical equations that govern the pollutan ...
. Some of the atmospheric pollution dispersion models developed by the air quality research unit are: * the
DISPERSION21 DISPERSION21 (also called DISPERSION 2.1) is a local scale atmospheric pollution dispersion model developed by the air quality research unit at Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), located in Norrköping. The model is widely u ...
model (also called DISPERSION 2.1) * the MATCH model


Allegations of harassment and corruption

An anonymous letter sent to the Swedish ministry of environment in 2019 and written by 100 SMHI employees, claims that harassment and threats from the management happen frequently within the institution. A claim that SMHI's former general director did not wish to address thoroughly. In 2020, it was revealed that the sea routing department was sold to its recently resigned former director for a very low price, without any public offer. The matter was reported at the Swedish parliament, but no formal action against the SMHI's management was ever taken. Question to the Swedish ministry of environment, in Swedish
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References


External links


SMHI website

The Model Documententation System (MDS)
of the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (part of the
European Environment Agency The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment. Definition The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides i ...
)
Airviro web page


{{Authority control Government agencies of Sweden
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
Atmospheric dispersion modeling 1945 establishments in Sweden Government agencies established in 1945