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InTro
Interfaces and Troposphere
Mineral dust modelled with WRF-CHIMERE online model
Mineral dust modelled with WRF-CHIMERE online model
Research topics
The team is coordinated by Laurent Menut. Members of the InTro group study the physical and chemical properties of the troposphere and its interfaces. Our scientific interests include:

Regional climate and water cycle

Study of the Water cycle in INTRO is focused on the Mediterranean region, in the framework of international initiatives HyMEx and MedCORDEX, but also in the basins of the major Chinese rivers. In the Mediterranean area, studies of the hydrological cycle and hydrological extremes (extreme precipitation, dry spells) has relied in part on the RegIPSL regional coupled modelisation platform, under development in the InTRo team in collaboration with other IPSL teams. Scientific focuses in the team include interactions between aerosols and precipitation, studying the runoff of major hydrologic basin including major Chinese rivers for which anthropogenic use of the water is critical. Study of the regional water cycle is one of the strong reasons why the InTRo team is currently strongly involved in the development of the RegIPSL regional coupled model.

Non permanent:
Augustin Cledat (Doc)
Benedict Hatton (Doc)
Douglas Keller (Post-Doc)

C/EC permanent:
Philippe Drobinski (DR CNRS)
Thomas Dubos (Pr Polytechnique)
Patryk Kiepas (IR Polytechnique)
Sylvain Mailler (IPEF ENPC)
Romain Pennel (IR Polytechnique, TC)
Jan Polcher (DR CNRS, SC)

Impact of climate on renewable energies

The INTRO team also contributes to interdisciplinary work at the interface between atmospheric and climate sciences and energy economics and engineering. A first line of research of the team in this field deals with the potential, predictability and value of the Variable Renewable Energy (VRE, mainly wind and solar) ressource. It involves understanding the variability and trends of the VRE potential in association to dynamical and thermodynamical processes at scales ranging from the boundary layer to the planet; reexamining the statistical modelling of instant VRE value; improving sub-seasonal to seasonal prevision of VRE by combining dynamical and statistical models and estimating the economic value of such previsions. A second line of research is concerned with the long-term increase in the sensitivity of the energy system to meteorological conditions associated with increasing VRE penetration and with rising demand thermosensitivity due to electrification. These activities are underpinned by interdisciplinary collaborations within the Energy4Climate center.

Non permanent:
Lia Rapella (Doc)
Ganglin Tian (Doc)

C/EC permanent:
Joan Delort (IR E4C)
Philippe Drobinski (DR CNRS)
Jan Polcher (DR CNRS)
Alexis Tantet (MdC Polytechnique, SC)

Chemistry-transport from urban to hemispheric scales

The study of the atmospheric composition is an important research topic in the InTRo team. In particular, the team coordinates the development of the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model, which is largely used in France and abroad for research and operational air quality simulations, including the French and European forecast platforms Prev'Air and CAMS. The main topics of research in this field include wildfire emissions with the development of the emifiresCAMS code, mineral dust emissions from arid areas and their subsequent transport, the transport of volcanic plumes as well as the development of downscaling techniques to address urban scale atmospheric pollution and population exposure with the EXPLUME model.

Non permanent:
Léo Adenis (Post-Doc)

C/EC permanent:
Bertrand Bessagnet (DR CNRS)
Arineh Cholakian (IE CNRS, TC)
Sylvain Mailler (IPEF ENPC)
Laurent Menut (DR CNRS, SC)
Romain Pennel (IR Polytechnique)
Myrto Valari (CNAP PA)


TC: Technical coordinator
TS: Scientific coordinator
Recents results
Simulating generic agrivoltaic systems with ORCHIDEE: Model development and multi-case study insights
Lia Rapella, Nicolas Viovy, Jan Polcher, Davide Faranda, Jordi Badosa, Philippe Drobinski
METHODOLOGY:
We develop a regional-scale AV model, at the interface with regional climate models and the ORCHIDEE land surface model, to explore the interactions between climate, AV systems and crops within the water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus. The model is applied to the Iberian Peninsula and The Netherlands.
MAIN RESULTS:
  • In the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, AV systems increase crop productivity and enhance food security and water/land use.
  • In The Netherlands, AV systems tend to reduce crop productivity, and the gains in terms of water and land use are less marked.
  • Optimizing AV system designs involves a nuanced approach, carefully balancing synergies and trade-offs inherent to different climatic conditions.
Impact of climate on renewable energies: Can we study climate and socioeconomic changes separately?

Joan Delort Ylla, Alexis Tantet, Philippe Drobinski
  • We create socioeconomic scenarios of heating demand electrification and AC adoption (MOD),
  • We use CMIP5 climate change scenarios for wind and solar resource as well as temperature (+1.75oC, +2.35oC, +2.80oC, +3.28oC, +4.04oC),
  • We compute indicators representing the capacity of adaptation of the power system (NAC, PAC, CoU),
  • We show that these indicators need to be computed by accounting for the compound effect of climate and socioeconomic change: studying both phenomena separately is misleading.
Could we improve the forecasting skill of renewable energies?

Ganglin Tian, Camille Le Coz, Alexis Tantet
  • Methodology The study presents a non-linear statistical ensemble forecasting method to predict wind speeds from Z500 forecasts.It evaluates this non-linear model against ECMWF dynamic forecasts and a linear model, focusing on their skills to predict weekly-mean surface wind speeds from week 3 to week 6.
  • Results
    • Better probabilistic skills than ECMWF.
    • Improvements to wind speed ensembles are seen across Europe.
    • Perturbations improve ensemble reliability
    • Improvement in MSE and CRPS with nonlinear methods is regional, such as in the North Sea.
Atmospheric pollution: Hemispheric transport of radioactive gas and aerosols plumes

Leo Adenis, Sylvain Mailler, Laurent Menut
Comparison between Eulerian and Lagrangian transport modelling
  • Two models: FLEXPART and CHIMERE
  • Ruthenium 106 plume in the Northern Hemisphere
  • Update of transport numerical schemes
  • Better results with CHIMERE, compared to surface stations measurements
Adding radioactive evolution:
  • Measurements: Station in Canada (C17) from OTICE network (Organisation du Traite d'Interdiction Complete des Essais nucleaires)
  • Models: WRF-CHIMERE, simulation Fukushima 2011.
    • Non reative gaseous tracers (red)
    • adding nuclear dependancy (orange)
    • adding semi-volatility and radioactivity (green)
    • (Project LRC Yves Rocard, CEA-DAM et ENS/LMD)
Atmospheric pollution: Explicit formulae for the calculation of the settling speed of non-spherical aerosols

Mailler S., Cholakian A., Pennel R., Menut L.
We have developed new, explicit formulae that describe the settling speed of non-spherical particles in the atmosphere, including the necessary corrections for large particles. Corrections reach:
  • -10% for lambda=2
  • -20% for lambda=4
Future prospects:
  • Take into account the probability distribution of particle orientation
  • study differential advection/sedimentation in CHIMERE
  • Take into account the optical effects of non-sphericity
Atmospheric pollution: CHIMERE, towards an unstructured mesh

Pennel R., Mailler S., Dubos T., Cholakian A., Menut L. (projet Escalair)
DYNAMICO
  • IPSL dynamical core (global and icosahedral grid)
  • Development of the regional version with unstructured mesh
  • Parallel efficiency : scale up to 1e4 cores / GPU oriented
Combine CHIMERE and DYNAMICO to:
  • Improve performances
  • Locally refined mesh in areas of interest
  • Multi-scale simulations without need for nesting
Approach:
  • Use of DYNAMICO low level coding structure
  • Time-loop
  • Management of parallel mesh (MPI, allocations)
  • Chemistry solved in CHIMERE and transported in DYNAMICO
Models developments

NEMO-Med

Ocean model
web site
The NEMO-Med model

CHIMERE


Urban to hemispheric chemistry-transport model
web site
The CHIMERE model

DYNAMICO

Dynamical model
The DYNAMICO model

ORCHIDEE

Hydrological/vegetation model
web site
The DYNAMICO model
People
ADENIS Léo
Post-doc CEA-ENS
Site:X
    BESSAGNET Bertrand
Research scientist, DR CNRS
Site:X 51 34
    CHOLAKIAN Arineh
Engineer, CNRS
Site:X 51 54
CLEDAT Augustin
PhD Student, Polytechnique
Site:X
    DELORT YLLA Joan
Research Engineer E4C
Site:X
    DROBINSKI Philippe
Research scientist, DR CNRS
Site:X 51 42
DUBOS Thomas
Assistant Prof. Polytechnique
Site:X 51 43
    HATTON Benedict
PhD Student, Polytechnique
Site:X
    KELLER Douglas
Post-doc, Polytechnique
Site:X 51 70
KIEPAS Patryk
Research Engineer Polytechnique
Site:X 51 34
    MAILLER Sylvain
Research Scientist, ENPC
Site:X 51 91
    MENUT Laurent
Research scientist, DR CNRS
Site:X 51 75
PENNEL Romain
Research Engineer Polytechnique
Site:X 52 33
    POLCHER Jan
Research scientist, DR CNRS
Site:X 51 46
    RAPELLA Lia
PhD Student, Polytechnique
Site:X, LSCE
TANTET Alexis
Assistant Prof. Polytechnique
Site:X 51 42
    TIAN Ganglin
Post-doc, Polytechnique
Site:X
    VALARI Myrto
Assistant Physicist, Sorbonne Univ.
Site:J 61 00