Instituto Franco-Argentino de Estudios
sobre el Clima y sus Impactos

About

Research Overview

IFAECI is currently focused in promoting a large and multidisciplinary array of scientific interactions between France and Argentina, in order:

to increase knowledge of physical processes driving climate variability and change at regional scale (South America and South Atlantic),

to foster studies addressing how climate variability and change will impact population, biodiversity, production and vulnerability,

to generate climate information for application and adaptation.

IFAECI will concentrate its research agenda on three main regions:

southeastern South America which is characterized by a large climate variability and change signal impacting the most relevant socio-economic regions of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

the extratropical Andes region, which is also characterized by a large climate variability and change signal affecting the mountain glaciers and other water sources of impact in the socio-economic activities of both Argentina and Chile, and

the South Atlantic Ocean, which is the pathway through which the northern and southern limbs of the meridional overturning circulation connect to the World Ocean, and being its western portion one of the most productive regions of the world.

General Information

IFAECI. The Unit

IFAECI (Instituto Franco-Argentino sobre Estudios de Clima y sus Impactos - French Argentinean Institute for the Study of Climate and its Impacts ) is an international research laboratory, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina jointly sponsored by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) of France, and the National Council of Scientific and Technology Research of Argentina (CONICET) and the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) of Argentina. IFAECI was created on the 1st of January 2010, and renewed twice, in 2014 and 2019. Currently Dr. Claudia Simionato is the Director.

IFAECI was implemented to strengthen France-Argentina scientific collaboration on a research agenda oriented to better understand, simulate and predict climate variability and change, as well as their impacts in southern South America and surrounding Oceans. IFAECI main scientific goal includes climate modeling, articulating the global scale and the regional scale, topic very relevant to the needs of Argentina.

What do we do?

CASSIS: Corrientes del Atlántico Sudoccidental Satélite In-Situ

The main objectives of the IFAECI Project CASSIS (Corrientes del Atlántico Sudoccidental con datos de Satélite e In-Situ) are to improve our understanding of the circulation on the Patagonian continental shelf, the dynamics of the Malvinas Current and the interactions between them. In addition to having a scientific interest, these studies will also have an important socio-economical impact since the Patagonian continental shelf and adjacent shelf-break are one of the most productive areas of the World Ocean. Furthermore, these regions have a significant impact on the balance of atmospheric CO2 and therefore possible fluctuations may impact the climate.
More at www.cima.fcen.uba.ar/malvinascurrent

RELAMPAGO: Remote sensing of Electrification Lightning and Meso-micro scale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations

El proyecto Relámpago será una campaña de investigación para estudiar las características únicas de las tormentas que se producen en la Argentina. Se traerán instrumentos desde los Estados Unidos, y también equipos provistos por el SMN y algunas universidades.

La campaña se realizará en la primavera y el verano de 2017, cuando se inicia la época de lluvias. Se utilizarán laboratorios móviles, es decir, camiones equipados con radares específicos, que irán en busca de las tormentas.

DADA: Data Assimilation Methods for the Detection and Attribution of Climate Change

This project will explore the potential for cross-fertilization between these two methodological research fields in climate science. The project team will gather together experts from both communities. Our purpose will be to establish a « proof of concept » for this idea, which will address the most fundamental questions associated to relevance, utility and feasibility of such an alternative methodological paradigm in D&A. The approach is novel and requires to bridge between two research fields of climate dynamics that have their own vocabulary and concept. But it is reasonable because we will restrict this exploration to simplified and idealized conditions, with low to intermediate complexity models, and different well-targeted situations.