Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (13 - CEA) and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (14 - CNRS): LSCE, Joint Research Institute.
	http://www.lsce.cnrs-gif.fr/

Expertise and experience Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE) is a joint research unit of the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) and of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). On the experimental part, our group has worked since 20 years on long term atmospheric CO2 and 222Rn measurements. We are operating two baseline CO2 observatories at Amsterdam Is. since 1980 and at Mace-Head in Ireland since 1992 (WMO Global Atmosphere Watch program). Over the last five years, we developed the global cooperative network RAMCES of 12 flask sites, and 4 continuous stations. High precision multiple species analysis of CO2, 13C, CH4, CO, N2O, and SF6, are routinely performed on flask air samples. On the modeling part, our group has developed original inverse methods to infer sources and sinks of greenhouse gases from global to regional scale, using atmospheric transport modeling and atmospheric measurements provided by the experimental part of the group and by other experimental groups around the world. Inverse methods have been used for CO2 for years and we started 2 years ago CH4 source optimization. Our modeling group is also involved into atmospheric chemistry, aerosols modeling and data assimilation. LSCE is developing and maintaining databases for atmospheric measurements for its own network of measurements but also as leader in collaborative databases part of European projects (CARBOEUROPE-IP, Atmospheric component). LSCE is leading the development on the vegetation component of the ORCHIDEE biosphere model
(http://www.ipsl.jussieu.fr/~ssipsl/doc/doc_main.html and http://www-lsceorchidee.cea.fr ). ORCHIDEE is a global model of the land surfaces, which is developed in partnership with other major institutes. It explicitly calculates CO2, energy and H2O fluxes on a half-hourly basis, forced by air temperature, precipitation, air humidity and solar and thermal radiation data. Role in this project WP2: comparison between the ORCHIDEE model and the flux measurements; improvement of the ORCHIDEE parameterizations based on these results. WP3: setup of two stations for the measurement of atmospheric CO2 concentrations; investigation of the benefit of 6-month seasonal forecasts of NPP for the African continent; inverse modelling of surface fluxes. Principal Investigator and collaborators Frédéric Chevallier (Dr), Scientific Responsible, studied Physics at the University of Rennes (France), and obtained his Master degree in 1993. His PhD work, defended in 1998, consisted in the development of a neural-network-based infrared radiation model for use in general circulation models. This work took place at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD, Palaiseau, France). He joined the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF, Reading, UK) in 1998 to work in the Physical Aspects and Satellite sections. There he adapted his radiation model, which was made operational in 2003 as part of the 4D-Var physics. He contributed to the development of the RTTOV radiation model within the Satellite Application Facility for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP-SAF) which is co-funded by Eumetsat. His involvment in the data assimilation system increased over the years, in particular to initiate the assimilation of cloud-affected and rain-affected satellite radiances. Appointed permanent research scientist at LSCE in December 2003, he has developed a variational system for the inversion of surface fluxes of atmospheric compounds from atmospheric measurements and/or satellite retrievals of atmospheric concentrations. He is a co-investigator in three EU-funded projects about the carbon cycle (CARBOEUROPE, GEOLAND and GEMS of FP6). Michel. Ramonet, (Dr) is working since 1997 at LSCE on the development on an atmospheric monitoring network in the Southern Ocean and Europe (RAMCES). Dr. M. Ramonet has some 8 years experience in atmospheric CO2 and Radon-222 measurements. He is also familiar with the development and use of global atmospheric tracer models to link the observed concentrations to the surface fluxes. Philippe Ciais, (Dr) is part of the core team of CarboEurope-IP leading the Atmospheric component of that project. He studied theoretical physics at the Ecole Normale Superieure and obtained a doctorate in 1991 in isotope glaciology. Appointed permanent position at LSCE since 1994, he leads the BiogeoCycles department at LSCE since 2002. Ph. Ciais has over 10 years contributed to 70 publications in journals and books. He is member of various international and national committees, in particular of the Global Carbon Project (IGBP-IHDP-WCRP), and chairman of the Integrated Global Carbon Observing Strategy (IGCO) within IGOS. Philippe Galdemard,is working since 2004 at LSCE about the ground-based continuous CO2 monitoring CARIBOU stations. He is project manager of the YAK-Aerosib project, which consists in measurement campaigns of greenhouse gases over Siberia from a Russian research airplane. He previously managed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Imager project. The JWST, to be launched in 2013, will be the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope in the infrared, and is being built by NASA and 11 European countries. The budget of the French part of the JWST Mid-Infrared Imager is about 20 M€, and the manpower is about 165 men-years from the four Spatial Astrophysics French laboratories. Nicolas Viovy, (Dr) has more than ten years of experience in the modelling of the biosphere. He has been leading the development of the carbon component of the ORCHIDEE model. His recent studies on climate and on drought made him one of the leading contributors to two papers in Nature. Example publications