The CSG Station and Météo-France

A fitting, successful partnership enabling these two organisations to develop increasingly powerful tools and thus provide ever more reliable forecasts, both for French Guiana and the Guiana Space Centre.

Weather at the heart of Space activities: exchanges and cooperation with Météo-France

At CSG, the operational weather unit is in close contact with Météo-France Toulouse and especially with the Rochambeau station. Whenever it requires new material or equipment, the weather unit informs CNES CSG management. It is also in contact with the aerodynamics unit at the CNES Evry Launcher Directorate, which is responsible for analysing interactions between the launcher and the atmosphere. Depending on requirements, this aerodynamics unit may call upon CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research), ONERA (the French National Office for Aeronautical Study and Research), or even the CSTB (the French scientific and technical centre for the construction industry), which is a specialist in the study of ground winds and gusts. In exchange, they provide feedback on their studies to the weather station, which is particularly effective in motivating the teams.

The partnership with Météo-France dates from when the CSG weather station was first established

Météo-France provides a public weather service, whereas the CSG weather station only serves the CISG (Guiana Industrial Space Community). All exchanges between the two, whether on a daily basis or during launch countdowns, are governed by two agreements. The main agreement commits Météo-France to providing certain data to the CSG weather station, such as the numerical simulation of the atmosphere, satellite images, radiosonde measurements from Rochambeau, as well as computing tools for analysing this data, which is all brought together in the Synergie station. Under the second, special agreement, the CSG weather service provides Météo-France with data from the Romuald radar, which in particular can detect rain over the entire département. Under the agreement, Météo-France contributes to the cost of telecommunication and renewal of equipment. Lastly, depending on the requirements of the base, Météo-France may be assigned a number of specific studies, such as for instance "how to characterise winds during flight". Its participation is currently being considered for a modelling study which has resulted from the CARPAT campaign.