CNRS
The National Center for Scientific Research, or CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), is a public organization under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Education and Research.
Founded in 1939 by governmental decree, the CNRS aims to:
- Evaluate and carry out all research capable of advancing knowledge and bringing social, cultural, and economic benefits for society.
- Contribute to the promotion and application of research results.
- Develop scientific information.
- Support research training.
- Participate in the analysis of the national and international scientific climate and its potential for evolution in order to develop a national policy.
With ten institutes that constitute the implementation of its science policy structures, the CNRS conducts research in all scientific, technological and societal fields. INSU (Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers , i.e. National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy) is one of the ten institutes composing CNRS.
INSU
The National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy aims to design, promote and coordinate national and international research in the felds of astronomy and of solid Earth, continental surfaces and interfaces, ocean, atmospheric and space sciences.
Working with other partner organizations and universities, the INSU carries out prospective scientifc studies in order to identify emerging research areas that require priority support. As part of the joint programs that it coordinates, the Institute funds research projects and sets up national and international facilities. The INSU also helps to structure national research in its own feld, in particular by managing the network of Observatoires des sciences de l’Univers (Earth Science and Astronomy Observatories-OSU).
The strategic priorities of INSU includes :
- Climate change and variability, biogeochemical cycles (carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, etc), atmosphere-cryosphere-ocean interaction, and atmospheric composition;
- Interaction of continental surfaces and the Critical Zone with the atmosphere and oceans, evolution of eco-hydrological systems and their quality, and weather-related hazards.
The CNRS contribution to NEMO Consortium is organised within INSU.
CNRS-INSU and NEMO
Ocean modelling with NEMO at CNRS is key to the scientific activity of about 200 students, researchers and engineers, including around 30 experts directly involved in developing and im- plementing new features in NEMO component. Applications by 2021 will use both global con- figurations (with eORCA1, eORCA025, eORCA12,…) and regional configurations at higher resolution (in particular with AGRIF). More specifically, these configurations will be used within specific projects for :
- Coupled simulations at global scale (with ORCA2, eORCA1, eORCA025) (within comprehensive ESMs);
- Hindcast simulations at global scale (with eORCA025, eORCA12) (some with bio- geochemical modelling);
- Hindcast regional simulations at higher resolution (1/12° to 1/72°) with particular regional focuses on the Med Sea, the Arctic ocean, the North Atlantic and tropical oceans.
The target applications for CNRS (which implementation timeline may depend on project fun- dings and computing resources) involve in particular :
- Improvement and the use of eORCA12 for coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations;
- Implementation and the use of a global configuration in the range 1/12°-1/48° in the context of future satellite missions;
- Implementation and the use of regional-to-basin scale configurations that explic- itly simulate kilometric scales (grid resolution ~100m).
A number of applications at CNRS by 2021 could also benefit from the definition and implementation of a robust interface between NEMO and regional models (in particular with non-hydro- static dynamical cores).
The consolidation of two capabilities appear to be key for CNRS applications by 2021 :
- The use of ensemble runs for hindcast simulations, for coupled simulations and for data assimilation; these applications require stochastics closures and communications among ensemble members;
- The use AGRIF for hindcast simulations and possibly for coupled simulations with several teams waiting for AGRIF to be fully functional for practical use.