The Quality Assurance/Science Activity Centre (QA/SAC) for Asia and the South-West Pacific was established in the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) in October 1995 as one of the QA/SACs within the framework of WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme. The objective of QA/SACs is to oversee the quality of the data in the GAW observation network. This QA/SAC emphasizes activities in the areas of carbon dioxide (CO₂), ethane (CH₄) and total ozone. This QA/SAC benefits from being collocated with the World Calibration Centre (WCC) and the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG).

The main tasks of this QA/SAC are as follows:

• To cooperate technically with GAW stations in starting and maintaining observations;
• To evaluate the quality of observational data submitted to the WDCGG, including the consistency and comparability of calibration scales for measurements, in cooperation with the WCC, WDCGG and contributors; and
• To provide supporting documents to promote scientific use of GAW data.