LMDZ5B: the atmospheric component of the IPSL climate model with revisited parameterizations for clouds and convection

Based on a decade of research on cloud processes, a new version of the LMDZ atmospheric general circulation model has been developed that corresponds to a complete recasting of the parameterization of turbulence, convection and clouds. This LMDZ5B version includes a mass-flux representation of the thermal plumes or rolls of the convective boundary layer, coupled to a bi-Gaussian statistical cloud scheme, as well as a parameterization of the cold pools generated below cumulonimbus by re-evaporation of convective precipitation. The triggering and closure of deep convection are now controlled by lifting processes in the sub-cloud layer. An available lifting energy and lifting power are provided both by the thermal plumes and by the spread of cold pools. The individual parameterizations were carefully validated against the results of explicit high resolution simulations. Here we present the work done to go from those new concepts and developments to a full 3D atmospheric model, used in particular for climate change projections with the IPSL-CM5B coupled model. Based on a series of sensitivity experiments, we document the differences with the previous LMDZ5A version distinguishing the role of parameterization changes from that of model tuning. Improvements found previously in single-column simulations of case studies are confirmed in the 3D model: (1) the convective boundary layer and cumulus clouds are better represented and (2) the diurnal cycle of convective rainfall over continents is delayed by several hours, solving a longstanding problem in climate modeling. The variability of tropical rainfall is also larger in LMDZ5B at intraseasonal time-scales. Significant biases of the LMDZ5A model however remain, or are even sometimes amplified. The paper emphasizes the importance of parameterization improvements and model tuning in the frame of climate change studies as well as the new paradigm that represents the improvement of 3D climate models under the control of single-column case studies simulations.     

Control of deep convection by sub-cloud lifting processes: the ALP closure in the LMDZ5B general circulation model

Recently, a new conceptual framework for deep convection scheme triggering and closure has been developed and implemented in the LMDZ5B general circulation model, based on the idea that deep convection is controlled by sub-cloud lifting processes. Such processes include boundary-layer thermals and evaporatively-driven cold pools (wakes), which provide an available lifting energy that is compared to the convective inhibition to trigger deep convection, and an available lifting power (ALP) at cloud base, which is used to compute the convective mass flux assuming the updraft vertical velocity at the level of free convection. While the ALP closure was shown to delay the local hour of maximum precipitation over land in better agreement with observations, it results in an underestimation of the convection intensity over the tropical ocean both in the 1D and 3D configurations of the model. The specification of the updraft vertical velocity at the level of free convection appears to be a key aspect of the closure formulation, as it is weaker over tropical ocean than over land and weaker in moist mid-latitudes than semi-arid regions. We propose a formulation making this velocity increase with the level of free convection, so that the ALP closure is adapted to various environments. Cloud-resolving model simulations of observed oceanic and continental case studies are used to evaluate the representation of lifting processes and test the assumptions at the basis of the ALP closure formulation. Results favor closures based on the lifting power of sub-grid sub-cloud processes rather than those involving quasi-equilibrium with the large-scale environment. The new version of the model including boundary-layer thermals and cold pools coupled together with the deep convection scheme via the ALP closure significantly improves the representation of various observed case studies in 1D mode. It also substantially modifies precipitation patterns in the full 3D version of the model, including seasonal means, diurnal cycle and intraseasonal variability.     

Study of the physical and chemical qualities of surface water and groundwater in the upper valley of wadi Rhumel (Eastern Algeria)

Our study region is characterized by a varied age detritus Mio-Plio-Quaternary formations. Some training can be an important groundwater sources (alluvial sand, shell, limestone, gravel). Agriculture in the study area is the first socio-economic activity and the largest consumer of water resources. It is therefore necessary to take into account for effective water management. This may causes a risk of pollution of various kinds: agricultural, industrial, and domestic water overlooked the lack of wastewater treatment plants in the region and that all discharges of sewage are dumped into the river are the Rhumel no prior treatment. Wadi Rhumel water pollution factors are multiple and related primarily to the agricultural vocation of the area, the nature of different domestic and industrial discharges. We note that the discharge of wastewater from the town of Tadjenanet and Chelghoum Laid is at wadi Rhumel, the latter during low water turns into open sewer. In times of water shortage, intensive pumping on the outskirts of the wadi locally generates an immigration of a possible pollution load to groundwater. Two major cities in our study area are located along of wadi Rhumel with an estimated population over 100,000 inhabitants. Both towns have uncontrolled landfills where one is located at the upstream of wadi Rhumel. Faced with this alarming environmental situation and the lack of treatment plants, we contribute to the study of the impact of wastewater on the quality of surface and groundwater through a physicochemical analysis interpretation.     

Correction to: Imagery of the metamorphic bedrock roof of the Sahel active fault in the Sablettes (Algiers) reclaimed area by ambient vibration HVSR

The original version of this paper was published with incomplete affiliation. Given in this article are the complete affiliations.     

Application of ASTER remote sensing data to geological mapping of basement domains in arid regions: a case study from the Central Anti-Atlas,Iguerda inlier,Morocco

Satellite remote sensing is shown to provide critical support for geological and structural mapping in semiarid and arid areas. In this work, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data were used to clarify the geological framework of the Precambrian basement of the Iguerda Proterozoic inlier in the Moroccan Central Anti-Atlas. In this study, the interpretation of the processed digital data has been ground truthed with geological field data collected during a reconnaissance-mapping program in the Central Anti-Atlas. The Iguerda inlier offers a deeply eroded Precambrian massif dominated by a Paleoproterozoic basement composed of supracrustal metasedimentary units intruded by various Eburnian granitoids. Impressive mafic dyke swarms mainly of Proterozoic age crosscut this basement. Eburnian basement rocks are unconformably overlain by Lower Ediacaran volcanosedimentary rocks of the Ouarzazate Group and Upper Ediacaran–Lower Cambrian carbonates. The applied ASTER analyses are particularly effective in the lithological differentiation and discrimination of geological units of the Iguerda inlier. The spectral information divergence (SID) classification algorithm coupled with spectral angle mapper and maximum likelihood classification effectively discriminates between metamorphic rocks, granitoid bodies, and carbonate cover. SID classification improves geologic map accuracy with respect to the spatial distribution of plutonic bodies and metamorphic units. In addition, Paleoproterozoic granitoids have been well discriminated into separate distinct suites of porphyritic granites, granodiorites, and peraluminous leucogranite suites. This discrimination was initially identified via remote sensing analysis and later ground truthed in the field. This methodology enhances geological mapping and illustrates the potential of ASTER data to serve as a vital tool in detailed geologic mapping and exploration of well-exposed basement of arid regions, such as the Proterozoic of the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco.     

Contribution of multivariate statistical techniques in the hydrochemical evaluation of groundwater from the Ouargla phreatic aquifer in Algeria

A hydrochemical evaluation of the hydrogeological surface aquifer of Ouargla was conducted using 17 samples of water. The analysis of the samples focused on the determination of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulfate, bicarbonate, and nitrate, while electrical conductivity, temperature, and pH were measured on the ground. The obtained data are processed by multivariate techniques with a varimax rotation approach after standardization. The chemical data follow four factorial axes that provide a cumulative total variance explained by 67 %. Considering the EC as an additional variable, the matrix components after varimax rotation have identified a first axis related to NaCl, a second axis associated with CaSO₄, a third axis of HCO₃ and a fourth axis of NO₃. These variables control a significant part of the chemistry of the groundwater in the region of Ouargla.     

Geotechnical and geophysical characterization of the Bouira-Algiers Highway (Ain Turck,Algeria) landslide

The Ain Turck (Bouira) landslide, in north-center Algeria, is one of the numerous instabilities recorded along the Lakhdaria-Bouira section of the 1200-km-long east-west Algerian highway. The locality of Ain Turck is known for its unstable slopes characterized by a very rough morphology with steep slopes (20 to 25%). This slide threatens the inhabitants of the Ibournanen village, located down the unstable slope, where parts of some houses have fallen into ruin, while others are cracked. It is characterized by an active movement extending over a more or less important slope, of the order of a hundred meters. The land mobilized by this movement corresponds to the layer of shale clays and clays overlaid by a backfill, placed there following the east-west highway works. Geological, geomorphologic, and geotechnical analysis allows determining the soil instability probably related to earthworks during the construction of the highway section a few years earlier, followed by a particularly rainy season in 2012. Acquisitions of ambient seismic noise and H/V ratio processing, as well as the acquisition of an electrical resistivity profile at the instability site, have reinforced our preliminary interpretations of depth and geometry of the sliding surface.     

Saghro Group in the Ougnat Massif (Morocco), an evidence for a continuous Cadomian basin along the northern West African Craton

The Saghro Group (SG) is a folded, low-grade volcano-sedimentary series up to 8 km thick that crops out within and to the north of the Pan-African suture zone in the central and eastern Anti-Atlas. Here we describe the SG of the Ougnat inliers that are exposed in the easternmost Anti-Atlas beneath the unconformable, Late Ediacaran Ouarzazate Group (OZG) volcanic rocks. The Ougnat SG mostly consists of volcaniclastic greywackes accumulated in a peritidal-to-shallow basin. The basin infilling was deformed by NNE-trending, mostly upright folds with axial-planar slaty cleavage and low-grade metamorphism. The deformed SG rocks were intruded by the ～550 Ma Mellab hypovolcanic granodiorite. The latter also crosscuts the lowest OZG rocks that are dated to 574–571 Ma in the western Saghro region. The SG rocks that form the Siroua and Saghro inliers have an oldest age of 620–610 Ma and were folded at ～610–580 Ma at the onset of the Cadomian orogenic events. We show that the SG rocks are similar to the “Série verte” (SV) rocks that are exposed in the Ougarta and western Hoggar east of the Pan-African suture. We infer that the SG and SV rocks accumulated in a same, continuous basin that was bounding the West African Craton to the north and the east. This strongly subsiding basin formed close to a volcanic arc and was folded during the last Pan-African synmetamorphic events. Fold orientation and age of folding differ however along the edge of the West African Craton. The orogenic greywackes that form the remnants of the SG-SV basin thus constitute a precious record of the diachronic Cadomian event s.l. along the West African Craton northern margin.     

Application of 3D Euler deconvolution and improved tilt angle to the aeromagnetic data of In Ouzzal terrane,western Hoggar,Algeria

The study area is located in the western Hoggar Shield (southern Algeria). It includes the In Ouzzal terrane, which consists of Archaean metamorphic rocks. By contrast to other rocks of the Hoggar Shield, the In Ouzzal terrane represents an exception of being neither deformed nor metamorphosed during the Pan-African event, remaining as a rigid block since 2 Ga. Although, previous geophysical works in the area include an airborne magnetometer and gamma-ray spectrometric survey as well as ground gravity and magnetotelluric survey structurally, the study area has not been very well understood. In this paper, we present the interpretation results of the airborne magnetic data by using the 3D Euler deconvolution and the improved Tilt-angle methods. These results reveal the existing of fault systems (FS) occurring within the center of the study area and along the latitude of 22°; the results also suggested that the deepest fault system is oriented NE–SW and is represented by parallel major faults splitting the In Ouzzal terrane into two different parts: northern and southern. The northern part moved northwards, whereas the southern part moved southwards colliding with the Iforas unit. The interpretation confirms that the In Ouzzal terrane and the surrounding Pan-African structures are bound two by two sub-vertical lithospheric faults with the existence of dextral and sinistral faults in the west and east of the terrane, respectively.