EURO4M
Météo-France
motivations and contributions
Teams involved
 DClim (Direction de la Climatogie)
– Service in charge of the climatological data including the database,
quality control, monitoring of the climate, climatological products, R&D
studies.
– P.I : Anne-Laure Gibelin
 CNRM/GAME (Research department) : WP2.3
– GMAP : Numerical weather prediction group : numerical weather
prediction models, assimilation for weather forecast.
P.I. : Eric Bazile
– GMME : Mesoscale group : Mesoscale meteorology, surface processes,
mesocale analysis, surface assimilation.
P.I. : Eric Martin, Jean-François Mahfouf
Background models/applications
 Météo-France has a long experience in surface modelling and derived
applications
 Need to upgrade the current near surface variable analyses (coop. NWP
consortia)
 Surface Scheme : ISBA (1989), SURFEX (2003)
 Snow Schemes : 4 snow shemes of varying complexity in SURFEX (2010),
CROCUS (1989) to be included in SURFEX
 Surface analysis : CANARI (Europe : 2009), SAFRAN (Alps : 1991, France :
2003)
 Assimilation : Operational screen-level and soil analyses in the global
ARPEGE model since 1998 and in the ALADIN-France LAM since 2009
 Coupling surface analysis with SVAT for monitoring : Snow model CROCUS
for avalanches (1991), ISBA and the hydrological model MODCOU (SIM,
2003), Carbon Fluxes (GMES Geoland project)
The CANARI analysis system
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2D optimum interpolation scheme
Spatialisation of T2m, RH2m, SST
and snow depth from surface
observations (SYNOP,BUOYS)
Background : NWP short-range
forecasts (ARPEGE,
ALADIN,AROME)
Structure functions :
homogeneous and isotropic
Advantages : robust, cheap and
developed within an operational
NWP software environment
Weaknesses : unrealistic features
over montains and near coastlines
The analysis system SAFRAN
 Analysis on « homogenous »
zones
 Explicitely account for altidudinal
gradient
 All conventional observations
used, radiative model for radiation
terms
 Structure functions rely on zoning
 Advantages : altitudinal gradient,
all variables to force a surface
model
 Weaknesses : choice of the
zones, artificial limits
Ébauche ARPEGE
between zones,
1200mZmaxi
radiation estimates
900m
600m Z
mini
300m
k=4
k=3
k=2
1000
2000
3000
4000
Précipitations
Température
Vent
Humidité
Neige
0
Evolution
of the number of obs./day
From 1958 to 2008
Nombre d'observations par jour
Background / reanalyses and monitoring
 50 years reanalyses were
made over France (based
Precip.
on ERA40/SAFRAN).
Soil wetness
 Drought analysis
discharge
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2003 : Heat wave (soil wetness)
1976 : Drought (precipitations)
Precip.
Soil wetness
discharge
Simulated SWI of 1st of April
compared to the climatology
Contribution to EURO4M
 DClim (Direction de la Climatogie) : WP1.1
– Provide regional datasets for the project
– Development and improvement of the control procedures to provide additional
information about data quality :
• Time, spatial, inter parameter consistency
• focus on the control of precipitation dataset (rain gauge) by using radars
and/or additional data
• look at the possibility to apply the same quality control procedures for all
datasets in the project
– Strong experience in Data Rescue and homogenization activities
 CNRM/GAME (Research department) : WP2.3 & WP2.4
– Development of a 2D surface analysis sofware based on previous
software (SAFRAN, MESAN, CANARI)
– coupling with a surface scheme in order to produce derived variables, in
particular snow cover, soil moisture, discharge and validations
– Validation in France and other areas
– Validation on well-instrumented tests sites
EURO4M impacts
 Synergy with other projects
– GMES Geoland : land surface monitoring (carbon - coordinated by
CNRM/GAME)
– SAF/land : contribution of CNRM/GAME to downward solar radiation
and snow albedo
– SAF/Hydro : contribution of DClim and CNRM/GAME to validations
– HyMeX : need 2D surface analysis at the scale of the mediterranean
 Improved capability of surface monitoring at large scale
– Offline applications (snow, soil wetness, fire hasard, …)
– NWP (assimilation, improved surface fluxes)
– …