AAA project
French historical climate and
weather observations rescue
co-funded by Fondation BNP Paribas
Sylvie Jourdain, Philippe Dandin
Direction de la Climatologie,Météo-France
4th ACRE Workshop ,KNMI, De Bilt, September 2011
AAA : Access to climate Archives despite Asbestos
Context
Few meteorological observations ever made by the French meteorological
office, since the mid-19th century, are available for climate research.
A huge amount of information has been collected and stored by the French
meteorological office since 1878.
Between 1970 and 1990, Météo-France deposited around 6300 boxes of
climate and weather documents at the Fontainebleau branch of French
National Archives.
4300 of these boxes contain Climate Data :
surface and upper air data from stations and weather ships for France
mainland, French overseas territories and ex-colonies from 1801 to
1970.
But access to the documents is precluded
due to Asbestos presence in archives
Fontainebleau Archives: Access forbidden
but documents in excellent shape
Météo-France archives :
2 km long of boxes in good shape,
but with asbestos in the air. The quality of
the archiving boxes actually protected
the documents from contamination.
Half of the meteorological archive boxes
in a weakly polluted zone need cleaning,
the other half in the polluted areas. This requires a very specific
treatment, made by professional companies.
AAA BNP Paribas
Climate Initiative selected project
BNP Paribas Foundation has launched a new initiative in collaboration
with the Group Corporate Social Responsibility function.
Chosen from among the fifty applications for funding, four
research programmes will receive support over the next three
years :
eFOCE : Implementation of experimental systems to aid understanding
and prediction of the impact of ocean acidification on marine
ecosystems
PRECLIDE : Development and application of methods of estimating
climate change over the next thirty years
Global Carbon Atlas : Creation of an online tool to provide
comprehensive information on the flow of greenhouse gases on a
global scale
AAA : Digital processing and archiving of historic climate data so as to
make it accessible to scientific experts worldwide
http://www.forachangingworld.com/climate-initiative/
Purpose of the AAA project
The purpose of the AAA Project is at last but not least to :
-
Open access to the French meteorological archives, and digitize
all relevant documents and observations (All French climatologists
and historians of climate dream of having access to such archives !)
-
Make this patrimony available to climate scientists, and contribute
to the climate heritage, history and culture
-
Develop the understanding of climate variability and change in
France and its former colonies, improve trends’ diagnostics, all in
support of climate impact studies, mitigation and adaptation
Project partners : Météo-France and
Archives Nationales
Météo-France and Archives Nationales are committed to give life to the
documents currently stuck in asbestos, and to offer access to most of
the valuable contents. Both are governmental agencies with
responsibilities and duties and both have gained experience in similar
operations in the past.
-
The Archives Nationales are a governmental agency in charge of
conserving and communicating documents produced by the
Government and the administration. The Fontainebleau site is mainly
concerned by archives related to Mankind and Territories.
-
Météo-France is the French meteorological service,
a governmental agency. Météo-France is a key actor in France
regarding climate analysis and Data Rescue operations, and both
items are mentioned in its triennial contract with the ministry.
AAA Scientific background
 This applied research will primarily help climate change
comprehension. It will also directly improve impact studies over
France and current or former French territories and consequently
contribute to climate change adaptation.
 The recovered information will be observational data and
metadata collected by the French meteorological service since the
1850’s wherever the French flag has been raised. They mainly
concern Air, Sea surface. They will be used for extending the
length and spatio-temporal resolutions of long series, which will
further be homogenized and give information on trends and
variabilities.

We emphasize the importance of metadata that could be obtained
from those archives. Observational data and any relevant metadata
will be the primary targets of our work.
A “gold mine” of past observations
We have a good idea of the content of this archive fund, thanks to the
deposit forms delivered when archives have been transfered but also
thanks to few extractions made before the black-out due to asbestos
Archives Nationales Database Priam 3 :
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/priam3_fr
Information about deposit N° 19820283
__________________________________________________________________________________
Origin service : Transports ; Direction de la Météorologie ; Directorate
of Climatology
Summary : Climatological and pluviometric observations, thunderstorm
maps, Armed forces observations journals, daily reports : 1849-1972
Periode : 1849-1972
Key words : ARMED FORCES ; CLIMATOLOGY ; METEOROLOGY,
PLUVIOMETRY
Document type : METEOROLOGICAL REPORT
__________________________________________________________
A “gold mine” of past observations
to be investigated
Based on the existing depository reports made between 1976 and 1994,
athe A priori inventory has been established and items are located in the
various wings of the Nato Peigne building
- Some « Climatological » Inventories Rescued and Imaged
Extract of the inventory for
the deposit 19820283
Box n°2470
- Wind observations at
semaphore and military stations
1893-1922
and some stations 1908-1910
Fontainebleau Climate Archives (state in 1994)
Climate Data in Fontainebleau Archives
Number of boxes
Period
Marine archive
France mainland surface observations
German observations WWII
Military observations
Primary school observations
Oversea territories, Southern and Antartic Lands
Africa and foreign countries
Total
725
2466
53
75
55
140
773
4287
1879-1985
1739-1972
1940-1944
1913-1953
1865-1908
1833-1988
1833-1989
France mainland observations
Climate stations
Daily reports
Synoptical stations Daily reports
Semaphore
Daily Reports
Studies and meteorological observations
Meteorological observations
Total
Number of boxes
Period
790
1304
252
89
31
2466
1820-1960
1923-1970
1923-1970
1739-1960
1799-1810
Daily series available in the French
Climatological Database BDCLIM
Sea level pressure series
Daily Precipitation and Temperature series
180
3500
160
3000
140
2500
Number of stations
Number of stations
120
2000
1500
100
80
60
1000
40
500
20
0
1840
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
0
1840
1855
Year
Gaps during Wars
Gaps during the World Wars
Very few daily data before 1875
Few daily temperature series before 1925
1870
1885
1900
Year
1915
1930
1945
1960
Enriching existing datasets
Major interest of the AAA Project : Recovery of new datasets that would
complement existing ones and improve the various derived studies and
products. The documents will help us to enrich the data sets before
1950, at daily time steps but it is difficult to estimate the potential of
the fund without precise inventory. Let’s try !
Archives Potential
for daily Precipitation series
Archives Potential
for daily Temperature series
2000
1800
400
Number of stations
1600
Archives Potential
1200
1000
800
600
300
200
Archives Potential
100
BDclim
BDClim
400
19
40
19
30
19
20
Year
19
50
19
40
19
30
19
20
19
10
19
00
18
90
18
80
18
70
18
60
18
40
Year
19
10
19
00
18
90
18
80
18
70
18
60
18
50
0
18
50
0
200
18
40
Number of stations
1400
Enriching existing datasets
Archives Potential for Sea leval Pressure series
160
140
120
100
80
Fontainebleau Potential
60
40
19
30
19
20
19
10
19
00
18
90
18
80
18
70
18
60
18
50
18
40
Year
Recovery and digitization of Primary schools observations,
Semaphore observations and German observations WWII
19
50
BDClim
20
0
19
40
Number of stations
200
180
Strategy
The work is divided in work packages and milestones :
Logistics : Extraction of boxes and cleaning ; extraction of documents and
reconditioning in safe storage conditions ; transfer to facilities accessible to
public consultation
Archivistics : Comprehensive inventory following modern archive protocols ;
identification and restoration of valuable pieces ; identification and
digitization of selected documents
Climate data sets : Analysis of the content of documents ; identification of
data and metadata to be recovered ; data keying, quality control and
integration into climatological data bases ; Offer on-line access to retrieve
data
Climatological diagnostics : Valorisation by homogenization of long series ;
Offer on-line access to series ; Identification of specific projects with
partners
Heritage : Valorisation with historical or heritage perspectives
Expected Results of the AAA project
Main results
- Full access to archives in the best environment of all
- Inventory and assess in details the meteorological resources and
analyze the content values which can be applied to on-going climate
research
Associated challenges
- Digitize and quality control (QC’eing) the most valuable data,
integrate such new data within existing climatological databases
- Improve the description of past climates at different spatio-temporal
scales, the knowledge of key parameters triggering extremes events and
their statistical distribution.
- Valorize the patrimony in historical, cultural and heritage context.
Perspectives
AAA: The first step to give life to the documents in French
archives
-
Scientific Research Accord for Climate Data Rescue between
Archives nationales and Météo-France signed in February 2011
- AAA Project : 3 years 2011 – 2014
-
AAA Total Budget : 3 Millions euros, including the 900 keuros from
BNP Fondation Paribas sponsoring
The extraction of the entire archives and the public communication can
be ensured within the term of the project
but the budget will be not sufficient for imaging and data keying ….
Thank you for attention
Watch the Video explaining the project :
http://www.forachangingworld.com/2011/08/aaa-access-to-climate-archivesdespite-asbestos/