Physical access to P2OA site CRA
Site presentation
CRA (Centre de Recherches Atmosphériques, 43.12981°N, 0.36915°E) is located on the Lannemezan Plateau, at 580 m above sea level, near the Pyrenean northern foothills. Remotely situated in a rural, open and rather flat terrain, the CRA is favourable to the deployment of specific, demanding or heavy duty instrumentation. Its infrastructures (technical workshops, offices, lodgings, meeting room, ..) allow it to host field experiments, continuous observations, instrumental developments and practical educational training.
A tenth of permanent staff work on site, covering diverse body of research (research and teaching scientists, electrician, mecahnic, instrumentation engineers, administrative and logistic staff).
The LAERO (Laboratoire d’Aérologie) and other OMP (Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées) or external labs have installed several instruments on a long term prospective, on the following topics :
- Atmospheric dynamics
- Surface/atmosphere interactions
- Atmospheric Electricity
- Atmospheric Physico-Chemistry
Complementary permanent instruments (with long terme series) enable the study of surface layer and boundary layer dynamics. They also are particularly favourable of tesing and validating new ground-based, airborne or tethered-borne instruments. At larger scale, the proximity of the Pyrenean ridge, at about 20 km, generates specific orographic features (foehn, mountain waves, valley wind systems, ...) which are very interesting for the atmospheric dynamics and pollution transport studies.
Technical support and Infrastructure
Meeting Room
A meeting room with the capacity of hosting 40-50 people, with white board, screen, video projector and WIFI is available to users during the field campaigns, or for seminars, summer schools and workshops.
Mechanical, electronic, computing support
The mechanic, electronician and electrician on site can potentially give technical support to the LAERO research teams, and more generally to OMP group or any research team hosted on site for a field campaign.
Lodging
9 houses on the site on the campus of the Centre de Recherche Atmosphériques can host students and visiting research teams, during their field experiment or workshops.