ADRIMED

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The Mediterranean region is currently identified as one of the future “hot spots” by climate modelling, indicating a strong decrease in precipitation during the summer period. However, these results are mostly based on large-scale global models, which do not (or do not adequately) take into account the great complexity of this basin and, in particular, the presence of aerosols from various sources that significantly modify the radiation balance of this region.

The scientific objective of the ADRIMED project is to study the way in which the “Mediterranean climate”, and more particularly the precipitation regime, is impacted by aerosols and will evolve over the next 50 years in the context of climate change and ever-increasing anthropogenic pressure on this region. This research project is based on (1) a large experimental campaign in the western Mediterranean region, associated with (2) regional-scale climate modelling exercises (RegCM4 model).

This large-scale field campaign is based on ground-based measurements (via the instrumentation of two super-sites: Ersa (Corsica) and Lampedusa) and airborne measurements and will allow to estimate the fundamental properties (chemical-physical-optical) of aerosols generated by anthropogenic activity, Mediterranean forest fires or during soil dust events in North Africa.

This unique dataset will then be used to significantly improve the consideration of these atmospheric species (and in particular their absorption properties) in the RegCM4 climate model in order to (1) estimate the direct radiative forcing of particles at the regional scale and (2) their impact on the Mediterranean climate and in particular the precipitation regime.

The climate simulations will be carried out initially for the period 1990-2010 and then for the period 2030-2070. In this context, particular attention will be paid to rigorously taking into account the demographic explosion in the Maghreb countries and the associated anthropogenic emissions.

This project is part of the international project ChArMEx (the Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment), which represents the “chemistry-atmosphere” component of the multidisciplinary programme MISTRALS (Mediterranean Integrated STudies at Regional And Local Scales), supported by the national Alliance ALLENVI and piloted by the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers (INSU).

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Typologie de projet :Campaigns

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