Evaluation of the AROME model's ability to represent ice crystal icing using in situ observations from the HAIC 2015 field campaign

International audienceSince pilots generally avoid intense convective areas, ice crystals icing (ICI) is an aeronautical weather incident that mainly occurs in the anvil of tropical deep convective clouds. Samples of favorable conditions for the occurrence of ICI and data from the High Altitude Ice Crystals (HAIC) 2015 field campaign in French Guiana are investigated and compared with simulations of the French operational mesoscale forecast system Application of Research to Operations at Mesoscales (AROME). To this end, a contextualization of convective systems into convective, stratiform, and cirriform regions is employed for both observations and AROME. General features of the microphysics of deep tropical convective systems are identified. The number concentration of crystals larger than 125 μm and total water content (TWC) are strongly correlated at each temperature level, and both decrease with increasing distance from convective cores. AROME can reproduce the general behavior of the observed microphysics, especially TWC, but seems unable to simulate extreme ICI events. Reasons are sought in the assumptions performed in the microphysical scheme ICE3, and guidelines are proposed to enhance its skills in the context of ICI. In particular, the representation of the snow particle size distribution is adjusted across observations using a generalized gamma shape. This shape is found to outperform the usual Marshall–Palmer and gamma shapes. Additionally, a temperature and snow content dependence of generalized gamma parameters is found. These changes are found to significantly improve the snow concentration diagnostic of ICE3, and these modifications open the way for improvements in the ICE3 schem

Estudo dos eventos extremos de precipitação ocorridos em 2009 no estado do Pará

A importância da previsão meteorológica para períodos muito curtos de tempo (nowcasting) tem crescido nos últimos anos, devido ao aumento considerável de desastres naturaiscomo enchentes, deslizamentos de terra, rajadas de vento, etc. Nesse contexto, o uso do equipamento radar meteorológico tem grande utilidade operacional, na detecção e acompanhamento de fenômenos meteorológicos adversos de curto prazo. A Região Metropolitana de Belém (RMB) é uma das regiões mais populosas da Amazônia. Nos últimos anos vem apresentando uma ocupação urbana desordenada, o que talvez possa ser uma das causas dos problemas que a população sofre com os alagamentos e inundações. Os eventos extremos ocorridos durante o ano de 2009 foram identificados e analisados com o uso do TITAN (Thunderstorm Identification, Tracking, Analysis and Nowcasting). Os resultados mostram que 66% dos eventos extremos ocorreram na estação chuvosa, sendo devido a três principais sistemas meteorológicos, a Zona de Convergência Intertropical (ZCIT), a interação desta com a Zona de convergência do Atlântico Sul (ZCAS) e as Linhas de Instabilidade (LI) em sua maioria originadas na brisa marítima. Os resultados mostram também que os sistemas de menor escala, como as LI, apresentam severidade maior por provocar altas taxas de precipitação horária

The large inner Micromegas modules for the Atlas Muon Spectrometer upgrade: Construction, quality control and characterization

International audienceThe steadily increasing luminosity of the LHC requires an upgrade with high-rate and high-resolution detector technology for the inner end cap of the ATLAS muon spectrometer: the New Small Wheels (NSW). In order to achieve the goal of precision tracking at a hit rate of about 15 kHz/cm2 at the inner radius of the NSW, large area Micromegas quadruplets with 100µm spatial resolution per plane have been produced. IRFU, from the CEA research center of Saclay, is responsible for the production and validation of LM1 Micromegas modules. The construction, production, qualification and validation of the largest Micromegas detectors ever built are reported here. Performance results under cosmic muon characterization will also be discussed