New method for wildfire behavior monitoring in real time
6 September 2016
We worked on developing new tools for wildfire behavior forecasting during the 2016 CEMRACS Summer Program with colleagues from INRIA, LIMSI and the University of Maryland. A new method based on image segmentation was adapted for any wildfire spread model (level-set or lagrangian-type). The key idea is to correct the fire front trajectory as infrared images become available. This method was successfully applied to the Rim fire in Yosemite National park in 2013. This work is supported by the French national programs, Labex AMIES and LEFE/INSU, as well as by the NSF-WIFIRE project funding in the USA.
ANR project COCOA for coupling methods funded
5 September 2016
The COCOA project has been funded by the ANR for a total budget of 695 KEuros over 4 years. COCOA, which stands for "COmprehensive Coupling approach for the Ocean and the Atmosphere”, aims to improve climate simulations with a better physical representation of ocean-atmopshere coupling processes. The project is organized around four main scientific issues: improving the physical contents of the parameterizations of air-sea fluxes in CMs; assessing the overall coherence of the complex set of parameterizations representing atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers and air-sea fluxes; improving the numerical schemes and software implementation related to OA coupling; assessing the actual impact of the previous improvements in CMs. To achieve its goals, this project brings together expert scientists from various disciplines (physicists, applied mathematicians, computer scientists).
Multi-dimensionnal coupling in Hydraulics at CEMRACS 2016
5 September 2016
The MOCHA project at CEMRACS 2016 (07-08/2016) is a collaboration between CERFACS, EDF (LNHE) and INRIA dedicated to multi-dimensionnal coupling in river hydrodynamics. This approach offers a convenient solution to complex flow modeling while limiting the computational cost and making the most of pre-existing models. A lateral interface coupling solution was implemented between a 1D model adapted to the main channel dynamics and local 2D models able to represent the flood.
A CERFACS researcher elected at the Board of the Combustion Institute
8 August 2016
T. Poinsot has been elected at the Board of the Combustion Institute and will start his term on August 8, 2016. The board decides of all important decisions within the Combustion Institute. For example, this is where the sites for the presigious Symposium (Int.) on Comb. are chosen. The next Symposia will take place in Dublin in 2018 and Adelaide in 2020.
The Zeldovich medal for T. Poinsot at the 36th Symp. (Int.) on Comb.
8 August 2016
At the last Symposium on Combustion in Seoul, Korea, T. Poinsot has been awarded the Zeldovich medal, one of the four Gold medals awarded by the Combustion Institute. The Ya B. Zeldovich is awarded for " contribution to the theory of the fundamentals of reacting flows". It is the third time it goes to a french scientist (after P. Clavin in 2014 and S. Candel in 2010). It confirms the high level of the CERFACS team in the field of numerical combustion.
A publication in Nature Climate Change
17 April 2016
The impact factor of 14.5 of the journal "Nature Climate Change" classes it first in the "Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences" category. Christophe CASSOU, CNRS researcher at CERFACS, published in this journal, in collaboration with a CNRS researcher at Météo-France, an article that is already very noticed by the climate science community. In this paper, the authors develop a new criterion for defining the starting date of the seasons in Western Europe, based solely on the dynamics of the atmosphere. This very specific criterion allows to assess that human activities, via greenhouse gases and aerosols emissions, are responsible for an about ten day earlier onset of the summer season in the 2000s compared to the 1960s, and that this advance would reach twenty days in 2100 when the most emitting greenhouse gas scenario, that is the "business as usual" one (RCP 8.5), was followed. The work is based on analysis of observations as well as the results of numerical simulations with the coupled model CNRM-CM5 that has been developed by teams from Météo-France and CERFACS, and was widely referenced in the last IPCC report published in 2013-2014. Link to the articleon the Nature Climate Change journal site:
Antoine Colmet Daage wins the “3 minutes PhD challenge” organised by Montpellier’s Water and Environment Institute (IM2E)
11 April 2016
Antoine Comet Daage wins the "3 minutes PhD challenge" organised by Montpellier's Water and Environment Institute (IM2E). Abstract (in french): Le changement climatique est aujourd’hui une réalité reconnue par la communauté scientifique. Dans notre région, l’influence du changement climatique devrait se traduire par une hausse des précipitations extrêmes malgré une diminution de la pluviométrie annuelle. Les acteurs de la région, comme Mr. Robert, paysan, constatent que cela influe sur les crues et les inondations du bassin du Lez à Montpellier, mais pour y faire face, ils aimeraient en avoir une estimation quantitative plus précise et locale. Cette thèse a pour but de répondre à cette demande. Pour cela, on compare localement des crues du passé à celle du futur. On cherche alors à estimer si l’inondation qui affectait le champ de Mr. Robert tous les dix ans changera ou pas, et si oui, son amplitude. (Video to come soon)
Sparse Days Meeting 2016 at Cerfacs
11 March 2016
Sparse Days Meeting 2016 at Cerfacs, Toulouse June 30th and July 1st, 2016 Programme Conference Dinner Venue List of Participants The annual Sparse Days meeting will be held at CERFACS in Toulouse on 30th June and 1st July 2016. These dates are one day later than originally broadcast so that people can attend the VECPAR meeting earlier that week in Portugal and also be able to attend the PMAA meeting in Bordeaux the following week. Because of this juxtaposition, the overriding theme will be one of parallelism but as usual any talk that has an association with sparsity is welcome. The default length for a talk plus questions is 30 minutes but a different time is negotiable. Requests to speak (accompanied by a title and short abstract) should be sent to Xavier Vasseur (vasseur@cerfacs.fr) and registrations (that are free) should be made to Brigitte Yzel (Brigitte.Yzel@cerfacs.fr). Although the deadline for these are 31st May 2016, earlier notice will help our organization of the Days. Accommodation You will find a list of hotels at Toulouse. The B&B hotel is very close to the Cerfacs. The others are located in the center of Toulouse. You should then take the underground line A up to Basso Cambo and then the bus number 18 up to the station Meteopole (~30 minutes to arrive to the Meteopole) to go to Cerfacs. List of hotels Toulouse tourism
Fourth ENES Workshop on High Performance Computing for Climate and Weather
4 March 2016
CERFACS organises the 4th ENES Workshop on High Performance Computing for Climate and Weather on April 6-7 in Toulouse under the auspices of the EU project IS-ENES2 and the Centre of Excellence ESiWACE. This international workshop will gather about 80 scientists and engineer around different topics in High Performance Computing such as the European HPC ecosystem, innovative development and today high-resolution models, and new paradigms (languages, standards, next-generation models, …).
Emergence of human influence on summer record-breaking temperatures over Europe
19 February 2016
Cerfacs (CECI, CNRS/Cerfacs) researchers have analyzed the 21st century climate projections simulated by an ensemble of 27 coupled models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) under a buisness as usual greenhouse gas scenario. At the end of the century, the multimodel results indicate a tenfold increase of the number of warm records compared to the first half of the twentieth century (taken as a climate with no detectable human influence) and the quasi-disappearance of cold records. They have then estimated a time of emergence of the summer temperature record anthropogenic influence in a world under a business as usual greenhouse gas emission scenario: 2020 for the cold records and 2030 for the warm ones with an uncertainty of ± 20 years. (Click the image for more information, in french) Reference: Bador, M., L. Terray, J. Boé, 2016: Emergence of human influence on summer record-breaking temperatures Over Europe. Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 404-412. DOI: 10.1002/2015GL066560.
CRCT 2016
1 February 2016
The CRCT (Centre de Recherche sur la Combustion Turbulente) meeting will take place on March 17th at IFP Energies Nouvelles. Information: christian.angelberger@ifpen.fr
Ph.D. Students’ Day : February 10, 2016
1 February 2016
Ph.D. Students' Day (JDC 2016) Wednesday February 10th, 2016 9 am. - 6 pm Cerfacs Conference room JCA / Seminars room About 40 students will present during this day what he/she is currently working on. Registration is free of charge but compulsory at the following email address : brigitte.yzel@cerfacs.fr Registration is open until February 5th, 2016. Programme of the Day and Abstracts
