Earth Sciences Department | Annual Report 2008

Earth Sciences Department


Report of Research Activities 2008 Aim and Structure of the Department The Earth Sciences Department of the BSC-CNS was established with the objective of carrying out research in Earth System Modelling. The group has as main topics of research: high-resolution air quality and meteorological modelling; global and regional mineral dust modelling; and global and regional climate modelling. Currently, the group maintains daily high-resolution operational air quality forecasts for Europe and the Iberian Peninsula (http://www.bsc.es/caliope/) under the umbrella of the Caliope project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment; and mineral dust forecasts for the Euro-Mediterranean region and East Asia (http://www.bsc.es/projects/earthscience/DREAM). The group also collaborates with the World Meteorological Organisation and the Spanish Meteorological Institute for the creation of the Regional Center for Sand and Dust Warning System (SDS-WAS) covering Europe, northern Africa and Middle-East. Other research activities involve the diagnosis of the behaviour of the Earth System Modelling codes in a supercomputer framework and the improvement of the parallel versions of atmospheric models to increase their horizontal and temporal resolution. During 2008, the Department coordinated the new forecast phase of the CALIOPE project, supported by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine within the framework of the National Plan of Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2008-2011; initiated a new CICYT project for Coupling of a Fully Online Chemical Mechanism within the Atmospheric Global-Regional UMO Model funded by MICINN; and participated in the European Climate Change project: EC-Earth. The Department also participated in 4 networks of excellence (AERONET, EARLINET, ENES and RETEMCA) and several projects of technology transfer, such as the participation in 4 EIAs for Modelling Air Quality of thermal power plants and incinerators or the analysis of the effects on air quality of introducing a speed limit of 80 km/h in the road network of Barcelona Metropolitan Area, supported by the Environmental Department of Catalonia Government (Spain). The Department also led the Earth Science work package in the Consolider Program “Supercomputing and eScience” coordinated by the BSC-CNS. Research Activities 2008 Air Quality This research line is based on the necessity to understand the dynamics of air pollution with the aim of obtaining a precise estimation of the air quality through high-resolution modelling. Air... Meteorological Modelling Numerical meteorological models are valuable tools for the study of complex physico-chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere. The atmosphere governs a large number of processes that directly... Mineral Dust Dust aerosol particles are produced by wind erosion of arid and semi-arid surfaces. Climate Modelling The main focus of this research line within the Earth Sciences Department is the development and testing of regional climate downscaling models for the generation of high-resolution regional...

Report of Research Activities 2008

Aim and Structure of the Department

The Earth Sciences Department of the BSC-CNS was established with the objective of carrying out research in Earth System Modelling. The group has as main topics of research: high-resolution air quality and meteorological modelling; global and regional mineral dust modelling; and global and regional climate modelling. Currently, the group maintains daily high-resolution operational air quality forecasts for Europe and the Iberian Peninsula (http://www.bsc.es/caliope/) under the umbrella of the Caliope project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment; and mineral dust forecasts for the Euro-Mediterranean region and East Asia (http://www.bsc.es/projects/earthscience/DREAM).

The group also collaborates with the World Meteorological Organisation and the Spanish Meteorological Institute for the creation of the Regional Center for Sand and Dust Warning System (SDS-WAS) covering Europe, northern Africa and Middle-East. Other research activities involve the diagnosis of the behaviour of the Earth System Modelling codes in a supercomputer framework and the improvement of the parallel versions of atmospheric models to increase their horizontal and temporal resolution.

During 2008, the Department coordinated the new forecast phase of the CALIOPE project, supported by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, Rural and Marine within the framework of the National Plan of Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2008-2011; initiated a new CICYT project for Coupling of a Fully Online Chemical Mechanism within the Atmospheric Global-Regional UMO Model funded by MICINN; and participated in the European Climate Change project: EC-Earth. The Department also participated in 4 networks of excellence (AERONET, EARLINET, ENES and RETEMCA) and several projects of technology transfer, such as the participation in 4 EIAs for Modelling Air Quality of thermal power plants and incinerators or the analysis of the effects on air quality of introducing a speed limit of 80 km/h in the road network of Barcelona Metropolitan Area, supported by the Environmental Department of Catalonia Government (Spain). The Department also led the Earth Science work package in the Consolider Program “Supercomputing and eScience” coordinated by the BSC-CNS.