Climate Exchange

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the value of information being assessed, the priorities are established

and documents are scanned for data keying or further consultation.

Research projects and Government budget support these efforts.

Research projects impose strong scientific drivers that bring together

scientists and climatologists, with a common goal.

Many actions are carried on in parallel – urgent matters make

it compulsory to increase momentum in various directions – and

brilliant results have been obtained or are foreseen. We could

mention the identification of the Société Royale de Médecine,

which asked its correspondents in the late eighteenth century

to record meteorological parameters. A French historian located

this rich source of information at the French Medicine Academy,

which is now online thanks to the National Research Agency

and Météo-France.

This retrieval was carried on in the Climate,

Health and Environment: Data Rescue and modelling (CHEDAR)

research project, which looked at the impacts of Icelandic

volcanic eruptions, namely the Laki, on health in the

late eighteenth century (the project was built and

launched before the eruption of the Eyjafjöll).

Many good examples showing that data rescue is an

international effort could be mentioned. Let us point out

two or three highly valuable examples that show, first

of all, that the connection between meteorological serv-

ices and academic communities is bringing value, and

secondly that climate is a subject for a united humanity.

The strongest floods ever recorded in the French Alps

are the Isère and Drac floods that caused huge damage

in Grenoble and the areas surrounding these mountain

rivers in 1859. Climatologists were able to recompose

the meteorological sequence that drove these rivers’

responses, thanks to data rescue – together with archi-

vists and historians on both side of the border between

Italy and France, which have successively ruled the

surrounding regions in the nineteenth and twentieth

centuries; and hydrologists were successful in reproduc-

ing the peaks of the flood for the first time ever. Another

example is one of the most beautiful things meteorolo-

gists, who share every day across borders, could dream

of: the transfer of old documents by the German mete-

orological service back to Météo-France, containing

observations made before or during the Second World

War. That is to say that starting from the identification

of a gap, and logically analysing the possible sources

of information, French and German colleagues easily

agreed that a search in German archives could be fruit-

ful. Lastly, the collaboration efforts with the former

colonies of France must be mentioned. Meteorological

information was collected in these areas, which is now

critically needed by local meteorological and clima-

tological services as well as by various international

programmes aiming to run numerical reanalysis. For

example, in Algeria, the definition of adaptation strate-

gies for the Wilaya of Algiers is underway now, and in

parallel, Algerian and French colleagues rescue data and

study extreme events and indices together to create past

and future scenarios. Data rescue is a real part of climate

services.

Big challenge, imaginative solutions

Dust is not the only obstacle to data rescue; there is

also asbestos among many other plagues. The major

effort currently underway in France is a partnership

between the French national archives agency, Archives

Nationales, and Météo-France. Because of asbestos, the

French meteorological archives – 2 km of raw data,

6,300 big boxes – could not be accessed by scientists.

A twofold action has been carried out:

• The state agencies have committed themselves

to act and the ministry in charge of sustainable

development agreed that giving access to this unique

fund was a critical measure, endorsed in the French

National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change

• Climatologists and archivists have answered a

research call from a private sponsor willing to support

research on climate change through its foundation.

Source: Météo-France

Documents, recently found by DWD, the meteorological service in Germany

and transferred to Météo-France, help to fill gaps in the data series and

provide information about the observing system during the occupation, when

French observers had to report to German authorities