P2OA

Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP) manages two instrumented sites in the central Pyrenees, devoted to experimentation and observation in atmospheric sciences: the Centre de Recherches Atmosphériques (CRA) near Lannemezan, an area of 70 ha on a plateau at 600 m above sea level; and 28 kilometres apart, the Pic-du-Midi (PDM) observatory, on top of a mountain summit at 2877 m asl.

Observations have been conducted on these sites for several decades in the fields of meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric electricity, bio-geochemical cycles, and atmospheric interaction with ionizing radiation.

The infrastructure of the two sites have important hosting capacity, equipped with a rich set of instrumentation and driven by permanent scientific research and technical staff.

The P2OA platform has three main assignments:

• Long-term monitoring of the atmosphere and data dissemination
• Hosting of field measurement campaigns
• Academic training

Beyond observation and experimentation conducted independently on each site, the geographical configuration allows coordinated observations on both sites to specifically study exchange processes of air masses and atmospheric species between plain and mountain, or between the boundary layer and the free troposphere.

Important caution: The P2OA data portal only provides near-real-time release of quicklooks and pre-validated data (level L2A). For research purposes, users are strongly encouraged to follow the “L2B” links toward fully-qualified data (available at external data portals).