Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute

(CC) Photo: Pim van Tend
The offices of the SMHI in Norrköping, Sweden.

The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (Swedish:Sveriges Meteorologiska och Hydrologiska) or SMHI is a government agency in Sweden and part of the Ministry of Sustainable Development. SMHI has expertise within the areas of meteorology, air quality, hydrology, oceanography, and climatology.

SMHI's head office is located in Norrköping. Prior to 1975 it was located in Stockholm but, after a decision in 1971 by the Swedish Parliament (The Riksdag), it was relocated to Norrköping in 1975. SMHI also has offices in Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö and Sundsvall.

To the Swedish public SMHI is mostly known for the weather forecasts in the public-service radio provided by Sveriges Radio. Many of the other major media companies in Sweden also buy weather forecasts from SMHI. SMHI has annual revenues of about 530,000,000 Swedish kronor (63,000,000 U.S. dollars) from their product services and other commercial activities.

Staff and organization

SMHI has about 550 employees. The research staff includes some 55 scientists, 45 in the research division and 10 at the Rossby Centre. The research division is divided into six units:

• Meteorological prediction and analysis
• Air quality
• Oceanography
• Hydrology
• Regional climate modeling (at the Rossby Centre)
• Remote sensing and radiation

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 with research and development as well as to participate in many national and international research projects.

Air quality research

The air quality research unit of SMHI has 8 scientists, all of whom have expertise in air quality, atmospheric pollution transport, and atmospheric pollution dispersion modeling.

Some of the atmospheric pollution dispersion models developed by the air quality research unit are:

• The DISPERSION21 model
• The AirViro model
• The MATCH model

Climatology research

The Rossby Centre is the climate modelling research unit at SMHI. It was established in 1997 and it is located at SMHI's headquarters in Norrköping. Research at the Rossby Centre is focused on regional climate modelling covering meteorological, oceanographic and hydrological aspects. Work is conducted both on model development and evaluation as well as modelling applications on climate system studies, climate change research and climate impact studies.

The Rossby Centre is involved in a number of projects, many of which are funded by the European Union, on climate modelling and other aspects of climate and climate change research. The projects are conducted in co-operation with other national and international research groups.