CEREA - Atmospheric Environment Teaching and Research Center

Research strategy

CEREA is committed to an ambitious scientific policy to tackle the challenges of modeling the atmospheric environment. Within the next 5 years, its objective is to master in parallel the complex processes of atmospheric pollution and energy transfer in the sustainable city, and to incorporate models and data into a digital city context. To achieve this, CEREA plans to strengthen its partnerships and alliances in the academic, industrial and institutional spheres.

Research positioning

CEREA’s research activities are structured along 3 major scientific axes:

► Physicochemical processes of atmospheric pollution,
► Physical processes of the lower atmospheric layers,
► Data assimilation and reverse modeling in geoscience.

They contribute to the understanding and quantification of the impact of transportation on air quality, together with the interactions between atmosphere and energy, including atmosphere/city energy exchanges, renewable energy, and pollutant dispersal in industrial and urban built environments.

To tackle the challenges of modeling and simulating such systems, CEREA develops, maintains, and distributes 2 software platforms:

► For air quality, Polyphemus employs different numerical models to simulate atmospheric pollution at different spatiotemporal scales,
► Code_Saturne, a general fluid mechanics application developed by EDF R&D, includes an atmospheric component.

In addition, CEREA installed and maintains meteorological measurement instruments. In particular, it has a strong involvement in SIRTA (Instrumental Site for Atmospheric Remote Sensing Research).

Director: Patrick Massin
Oversight: École nationale des ponts et chaussées, EDF R&D

►► Visit the website