Tony M Dec 3, 2018:

@ All It is noticeable how those of us who are native speakers of EN have had no trouble at all immediately comprehending the nuance involved in this source text, which seems to have given some problems for the non-native speakers :-)

Tony M Dec 3, 2018:

@ Elisabeth Thanks so much for your support, and for understanding my point — and I think your suggestion is a good one!

Elisabeth Richard Dec 3, 2018:

Tony a totalement raison, ici 'areas...' ne doit pas être traduit par 'zones touchées par des risques d'incendies' mais plutôt par quelque chose comme 'notamment en ce qui concerne...'.

Daryo Dec 2, 2018:

"aeras" can have different meanings but in this ST only one meaning can fit.

You can't really measure the activity of forecasting (anything) in square meters - so there is "la preuve par l'absurde" - not the most elegant method, but for sure brutally efficient in discarding what wouldn't fit.

Tony M Dec 2, 2018:

@ BDF / @ Daryo Thanks so much for your support: I'm glad you agree that it is as clear-cut as I'd originally claimed.

Daryo Dec 2, 2018:

areas such as fire danger forecasts, fire emissions and smoke aerosol forecasts
=>
these CAN'T BE any kind of "geographical" areas / or any areas of the type "surfaces (in m2 or km2)"

these are "areas" as in areas = types of activities.

So "zones" definitely WON'T work ...

B D Finch Dec 2, 2018:

@Tony Agree! In fact, there is no ambiguity at all, given what follows "in areas such as".

Katarina Mihalova Dec 2, 2018:

Ce ne sont pas les "zones" qui sont "touchées" par les risques d'incendie. On parle ici, me semble-t-il, des prévisions météo, comme, par exemple, celles concernant les risques d'incendie, etc. Tony a peut-être raison.

Tony M Dec 2, 2018:

@ mchd Oh dear, I'm sorry, once again you seem to be misunderstanding the EN source text here: this is not talking about 'areas' in the sense of 'zones', but in terms of 'fields of activity', for which one word in FR can indeed be 'domaine' — nothing of course to do with the notion of a wine estate etc. LOL!

This ambiguoty of the word 'area' in EN often causes confusion for FR-speakers, since it can be used to mean both a geographical area (zone), a physical measurement of area (surface / superficie), and a field or domain of activity, for example "that is within the area of expertise of an electrical engineer", where 'domaine' is indeed one term that is sometimes used in FR: « dans le domaine juridique »

However, in this instance, whether or not 'domaine' is the best solution — and I only cited it as an illustration, to make my point clearer — I am quite certain that 'zone' is entirely wrong here.

mchd Dec 2, 2018:

Zones convient très bien, nous ne sommes pas dans "le domaine de Chablis" !!
Mais il s'agit de fumée d'aérosols.
Cf. http://www.ecosociosystemes.fr/aerosols.html

Tony M Dec 2, 2018:

@ Asker I don't know about your actual question term, but I think there is another error in your proposed translation.
It seems as if you are proposing translating 'in areas such as' as " dans des zones... ", but I think this would be wrong here; the clue lies in the EN syntax where the presence of 'such as' strongly suggests these are not geographical 'zones', but rather 'des domaines tels que...'