In search of scientific and
technological excellence

Météo-France research teams ensure the development of numerical weather and climate prediction models within a European cooperative framework. This activity plays a central role within the agency as it significantly contributes to the continuous improvement of its operational tools and the quality of its services that it is able to provide.

In particular, Météo-France’s ability to constantly improve prediction of weather phenomena and their impact is very largely based on the strengthening of numerical weather forecasting systems and the inclusion of new observation data. Having effective climate models on-hand is also essential to enable the agency to make leading scientific contributions to global research and to significantly contribute to the provision of referential climate services.

These activities are conditioned by the development and renewal of the agency’s data collection and processing resources. They also give rise to cutting edge numerical computation tools. In order to do this, Météo-France uses:

• exploration methods (drones, planes, etc.) required in order to improve understanding of the physical processes at work in the atmosphere and to validate the behaviour of numerical prediction models;
• observation networks belonging to Météo-France (automatic stations, radars, etc.) or shared internationally such as satellites;
• crowdsourcing, which facilitates the collection of valuable information for the validation and use of ‘real-time’ models and systems output, as well as for the monitoring of prominent weather events and their impacts, particularly in the case of vigilance;
• computation and storage infrastructure of which the power and capacity are prerequisites of the operational implementation of innovations resulting from research.

Numerous advances in all of these areas have marked 2017. They concerned various regions (the Mediterranean, overseas territories, Europe, the tropical Atlantic Ocean, etc.), various environments (atmosphere, sea, mountains, cities, etc.), and finally, progress in terms of understanding, modelling and prediction of meteorological and climate phenomena and their impacts (waves and surges, storms, extreme rainfall, African monsoons, hurricanes, urban ‘heat island’ effects, air quality and atmospheric pollen concentrations, etc.).