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 Last revision: 02/10/2006

Home page: The PIRRENE programme

PIRRENE is an acronym for 'Programme Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Radiométrie en Environnement Extérieur' (Interdisciplinary Field Experiment on Radiometry). The programme includes a set of theoretical and experimental activities on optical radiometry, ranging from ultraviolet to thermal infrared wavelengths. It is conducted by a group of French laboratories based around an experimental site located at ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales - National Centre for Aerospace Research)

participants

research themes

applications

experimental site

data circulation

The PIRRENE programme was initiated by the Applied and Theoretical Optics Department of ONERA. Several laboratories are working on the programme in terms of an agreement signed in September 2000. At the moment, the following laboratories are participating in the PIRRENE programme:

The Toulouse centre for space studies of the biosphere (CESBIO - Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère);

The Toulouse-based national centre for meteorological research (CNRM - Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques)

The laboratory for scientific research into imagery, computing and remote-sensing in Strasbourg (LSIIT -Laboratoire des Sciences de L'Image, de l'Informatique et de la Télédétection)

The Toulouse-based national centre for aerospace research (ONERA - Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales)

The scientific goal of the programme is to develop means and methods for understanding and determining the physical and optical characteristics of the Earth/atmosphere system, for a given reference scene. The main research themes are :

developing methodology for taking radiometric measurements in an external environment;

analysing, understanding and modelling the phenomena involved in measurement physics;

characterising and modelling the thermo-optical properties of targets and backgrounds;

characterising and modelling the physical and optical properties of the atmosphere which govern radiative transfers.

Major applications of this research consist of:

providing input data for modelling and simulation codes;

validating simulation codes (by means of ground, airborne and/or space-borne measurements);

calibrating and specifying instruments;

validating products resulting from or derived from remote acquisitions (airborne or space-borne).

The experimental site is located in the south-west of France in the Midi-Pyrenees region at ONERA's Fauga-Mauzac centre (43° 23' 02'' N, 01° 17' 28''E, 188 m in altitude). The area reserved for PIRRENE activities is a rectangle of land about 0.7 km wide by 1.2 km long, with a wide variety of natural vegetation surfaces). It is equipped with a one kilometre long, laser base with a laboratory building on each end. One of the buildings is also used for various measurement activities on the site.

A lot of measurements are taken on the experimental site, some continuously. Some of them are available through this site (depending on corresponding user rights). The data are stored in files in specific tree structures for each instrument or group of instruments. Each tree structure has its own documentation describing measurement procedures, data structures and the name of a contact person.