1. French Upper Air Network Design and Implementation
Magali STOLL
Head of Upper Air Observing Systems Department
Météo France – Direction of Observing Systems
TECO 2008

2. Presentation Context, domain, deliveries Needs, offer, capacities
Study on the French Upper Air Network evolution
Context, domain, deliveries
Needs, offer, capacities
Main orientations
Design and implementation of the French Upper Air Networks
Radiosondes
Water vapour by GPS
Aircraft observations
Ground remote sensing
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

3. Prospective study on the evolution of the upper air observing network for the needs of Météo France ( )
Context
Increasing cost of the radiosounding network
Strategy and objectives of Météo France for the next 5 to 10 years
Eumetnet, Eumetsat, GMES, WMO programmes
Domain
Radiosondes and other upper air systems, complementary with satellites
Delivery
General requirements, classified at 3 levels : global, regional, national
Analysis of the capacity for the current and future systems
Evaluation of the total cost and constraints for the evolutions
Main orientations for the next 10 years
Objectives, planning and budget for 2008 to 2012
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

4. Needs in upper air data Update of the needs General needs Trends
Meteo France is concerned by the global, regional and local needs
Documents WMO, Eumetnet and Eumetsat give recommandations
A survey has been made inside Météo France to complete them
General needs
Permanent : climatology and forecasting
New : climate change, meso scale numerical models (Arome)
Future : physico chemical applications
Trends
Profiles more precise on the vertical with information on the horizontal position
Wide range of spatial and temporal resolutions needs depending on the applications
Less constraints on the horaries (4DVAR…)
Progress to do to access to the data, to use and to visualise them
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

5. General requirements Global Régional National Scale > 1000 km
Applications
Climate and changes
Satellite calibration
Global NWP control
Global NWP assimilation
Regional NWP assimilation
Regional NWP control
Satellite control
Mesoscale NWP control Mesoscale NWP assimilation
Short terme forecasting
Nowcasting
Systems calibration
Users assistances
Profiles
P, T, U, V + (O3)
P, T, U, V
P, T, U, V + hydrometeores
Height
30 km
20 km
10 km
Density
500 to 1000 km
50 to 500 km
10 to 50 km
Frequency
12 h to 24 h
3 h to 12 h
5’ to 3 h
Delivery
2 h to 1 month
1 to 2 h
15’ to 1 h
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

6. Systems capacities Global Régional National Cost / profile
P, T, U , V : RS
+++ ++ +
- - -
V : profileur VHF
- -
V : profileur UHF -
T, U : radiometer
V, T,(U) : lidar, sodar
P, T, V (U, O3) : Aircraft
+ ( - )
V : radars (Doppler)
U : GPS (ZTD)
+ +
T, U, (V) : satellite
To be evaluated
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

7. French upper air network : Main Orientations
Optimisation of the radiosounding network
« Walls » of the composite upper air networks and satellites
To satisfy in priority the global needs, then the regional and at least the national ones
To adapt horaries, frequency and altitudes at the needs level
To automatize if necessary and possible
Extension of the upper air network with existing systems
To satisfy in prirority the national and regional needs
To valorize and enhance the systems and networks owned by partners
GPS : geography, Amdar : airlines, profilers : research, radars: hydrology
Experimentation of new or recent systems before deploiement
To cover in priority the local and meso scale applications
Ground remote sensing : lidar, sodar, radiometer, alone or colocated with profilers
Onboard aircraft sensors : T-AMDAR, WVSSII
Integration of environmental data into the global observing system
To cover in priority the global needs (GCOS)
Integration of RS ozones with RS (GRUAN)
Development of real time physico chemical aircraft measurements (IAGOS)
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

8. Current French RS Network (22 stations)
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

9. Optimisation of the French Territorial Radiosounding network
Main Objectives
Needs that could not be satisfied by other systems
Reduction of the total cost, human and financial
Automatisation when useful and possible
Re Design of the RS network :
Global : permanent
Regional : to review in 10 years if other equivalent systems useful
National : non permanent, to be replaced by other current systems
Implementation of the future RS network
Evaluation of the employment and cost impacts
Feasibility study : technical, financial, human and users aspects
Planification of the feasible implementation
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

10. Current and designed radiosoundings
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

11. RS evolution for 2009 to 2012
First optimisation of the radiosounding network
Terrestrial RS : progressive implementation of a V1 network
Onboard ships RS : extension from 2 to 4 with compensation by EUCOS
Ozone RS : qualification and integration of partners observations
Adaptative RS : automatisation of a set of chosen stations
Wind Pilots : study on the oversea territory network evolution
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

12. Initial GPS network used for met applications
GPS stations in 2005
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

13. Improvement of GPS data (V1) and extension of the network (V2)
Enhancement of GPS data : designed network V1
To satisfy in priority the numerical models at regional scale
Delivery of data from 170 stations on France
Avaibility of ZTD in less than 90’
Frequency of measurements every 15’
Implementation of quality management
Integration into the E-GVAP Eumetnet program
Extension of GPS data : designed network V2
To satisfy the needs for mesosacle and nowcasting applications and to cover the oversea territories
Consolidation of the operations for the production of ZTD
Production of IWV data and map
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

14. Implementation of the V1 GPS French network64 63 65 69 81 94 97
112
114
115
120
122
129
141
144
145
146 40 50 60 70 80 90
100
110
130
140
150
160
170
180
Juin 06
Juil 06
Aoû 06
Sep 06
Oct 06
Nov 06
Déc 06
Jan 07
Fév 07
Mars 07
Avr 07
Mai 07
Juin 07
Juil 07
Aoû 07
Sep 07
Oct 07
Nov 07
Déc 07
Jan 08
Fév 08
Number of stations
Objectives
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

15. GPS network V1 in 2008
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

16. Amdar observations (7/11/08)
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

17. Current AMDAR data
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

18. Potential French AMDAR data
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

19. Exemple of intensification in Germany
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

20. Demonstration of physico chemical aircraft data IAGOS project
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

21. Evolution of the aircraft data
Objectives
Intensify the frequency of profiles on the French continental domain
Develop the number of data on the oversea territories
Propose to evaluate the quality of humidity sensor
Contribute to standardize Amdar and integrate humidity on aircraft
Prepare the real time delivery of aircraft environemental data
Activities
International programs
E-AMDAR for Eumetnet for the Eucos area
Australia and USA Amdar programs for oversea territories
AMDAR Panel for WMO coordination
National capacity
Research aircraft (Safire)
Memeber of the IAGOS project
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

22. Current Wind Profilers European Network
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

23. Evolution of wind profilers
Objectives
Consolidate and valorize the existing systems, operational and research
Focus on applications : numerical model, aeronautic, environment, forecasting, research field experiment
Evaluate the using and the impact of the profilers
Study the optimum localisation for the assimilation by the model
Planification
For : V1 of a sparse network and evaluation
For 2013 – 2016 : V2 of a meso scale network, if needed and useful
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

24. Potential French Doppler Radar
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

25. Objectives proposed for Doppler radars
Qualification of the measurements
Profiles et 3D winds
Quality management to define and implement
Extension of the network
Delivery of data for 16 radars
Integration into the Eumetnet Winprof II program
Evaluation of the data using
By numerical model
By forecasters
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg

26. Evaluation of recent remote sensing systems
Lidar
experimentation for the wind shear in Nice airport
Sodar
experimentation for the fog detection in Roissy Airport
Radiometers
evaluation of Hu and T propfiles in Toulouse
Colocated systems
Retrieval of PTUV profiles in the troposphère
And also
Evaluaion by forecasters of IASI Profiles from METOP satellite
27 November 2008
TECO 2008 St Petersburg