Quintana‐Seguí et al. (2008) Analysis of Near-Surface Atmospheric Variables: Validation of the SAFRAN Analysis over France

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
• Year: 2008
• Authors: Pere Quintana Seguí, Patrick Le Moigne, Y. Durand, Éric Martin, Florence Habets, M. Baillon, Claire Canellas, L. Franchistéguy, Sophie Morel
• DOI: 10.1175/2007jamc1636.1

Research Groups

Météo-France (Primary institution for operational system and data provision)

Short Summary

This paper validates the extended, nationwide version of the SAFRAN mesoscale atmospheric analysis system, demonstrating robust performance for temperature, humidity, and precipitation (RMSE $2.4\ \text{mm}\ \text{day}^{-1}$), confirming its suitability for operational use across France.

Objective

• Validate the quality and performance of the extended, nationwide version of the SAFRAN mesoscale atmospheric analysis system for five key surface variables: air temperature, humidity, wind speed, rainfall (precipitation), and incoming radiation.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Mesoscale; extended coverage of France (originally mountainous areas); analysis based on climatically homogeneous zones (approximately $1000\ \text{km}^2$).
• Temporal Scale: Hourly time step (1-h) analysis output, based on interpolation from a 6-h analysis time step.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: SAFRAN (Système d’analyse fournissant des renseignements atmosphériques à la neige); Aurelhy (Analyse utilisant le relief pour l’hydrométéorologie) used for precipitation comparison.
• Data sources: Météo-France observation network; Data from selected well-instrumented stations.

Main Results

• Air temperature and relative humidity were well reproduced, presenting no significant bias.
• Wind speed was well reproduced but exhibited a slight negative bias of $-0.3\ \text{m}\ \text{s}^{-1}$.
• The precipitation analysis was robust and unbiased, achieving a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of $2.4\ \text{mm}\ \text{day}^{-1}$. This error was primarily attributed to the spatial heterogeneity of precipitation within the geographical analysis zones.
• The analysis of incoming solar radiation presented some biases, particularly in coastal areas.
• The interpolation process from the 6-h analysis time step to the 1-h output time step was identified as a source of error.

Contributions

• Provides a comprehensive validation of the extended SAFRAN system, confirming its reliability for surface variable analysis across all of France, moving beyond its original focus on mountainous regions.
• Establishes quantitative error metrics (bias, RMSE) for key atmospheric variables, supporting the system's current operational use at Météo-France for real-time applications.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{QuintanaSeguí2008Analysis,
  author = {Quintana‐Seguí, Pere and Moigne, Patrick Le and Durand, Y. and Martin, Éric and Habets, Florence and Baillon, M. and Canellas, Claire and Franchistéguy, L. and Morel, Sophie},
  title = {Analysis of Near-Surface Atmospheric Variables: Validation of the SAFRAN Analysis over France},
  journal = {Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology},
  year = {2008},
  doi = {10.1175/2007jamc1636.1},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1175/2007jamc1636.1}
}

Generated by BiblioAssistant using gemini-flash-latest (Google API)