Anny Cazenave () is a French space

geodesist Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equival ...

and one of the pioneers in

satellite altimetry Satellite geodesy is geodesy by means of artificial satellites—the measurement of the form and dimensions of Earth, the location of objects on its surface and the figure of the Earth's gravity field by means of artificial satellite technique ...

. She works for the French space agency

CNES The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is und ...

and has been deputy director of the (LEGOS) at Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

since 1996. Since 2013, she is director of Earth sciences at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), in Bern (Switzerland). As one of the leading scientists in the joint French/American satellite altimetry missions

TOPEX/Poseidon TOPEX/Poseidon was a joint satellite altimeter mission between NASA, the U.S. space agency; and CNES, the French space agency, to map ocean surface topography. Launched on August 10, 1992, it was the first major oceanographic research satellite. ...

, Jason-1, and the

Ocean Surface Topography Mission OSTM/Jason-2, or Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite, was an international Earth observation satellite altimeter joint mission for sea surface height measurements between NASA and CNES. It was the third satellite in a series s ...

, she has contributed to a greater understanding of

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

caused by

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. Cazenave is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was the lead author of the sea level sections for their fourth and fifth Assessment Reports.

Early life and education

Not from an academic background, Cazenave was not destined to work in the sciences. However, she achieved a postgraduate doctorate in fundamental astronomy (Paris, 1969) as well as receiving her Ph.D. in geophysics from the

University of Toulouse The University of Toulouse (french: Université de Toulouse) was a university in the French city of Toulouse that was established by papal bull in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the Frenc ...

in 1975.

Post-University

From 1975 until the mid-1990s, Cazenave researched temporal and spatial variations of gravity. She used satellite altimetry data from

SEASAT Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and had on board one of the first spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). The mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global sa ...

ERS-1 European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS) was the European Space Agency's first Earth-observing satellite programme using a polar orbit. It consisted of 2 satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2. ERS-1 ERS-1 launched 17 July 1991 from Guiana Space Centre ...

, and

to devise gravity models of deep ocean geodynamic processes. The models were used to investigate marine tectonic features such as

geoid The geoid () is the shape that the ocean surface would take under the influence of the gravity of Earth, including gravitational attraction and Earth's rotation, if other influences such as winds and tides were absent. This surface is extended ...

height variations across deep ocean trenches and fracture zones, lithospheric cooling and subsidence, and the isostatic compensation of seamount chains. Cazenave turned her focus to space oceanography in the 1990s. Using data sets from the satellite altimetry missions TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and the

of Jason-2, she has addressed the problem of global sea level rise. She was among the first scientists to use the satellite altimetry data to extrapolate a rate of sea level rise of approximately three mm/year. She addressed the problem of balancing the global sea level budget by incorporating time-dependent gravity field data from the

GRACE Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...

satellite system into her analyses. She has also been involved in studying terrestrial bodies of water from space. Cazenave is interested in "measuring temporal changes of the Earth gravity field using space

gravimetry Gravimetry is the measurement of the strength of a gravitational field. Gravimetry may be used when either the magnitude of a gravitational field or the properties of matter responsible for its creation are of interest. Units of measurement G ...

and in applications to ice sheet mass balance and change in total land water storage." Cazenave is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was the lead author of the sea level sections of the 2007

IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ''Climate Change 2007'', the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was published in 2007 and is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific, technical and socio ...

and the 2014 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Cazenave has called attention to the effects of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

on sea level rising. She has indicated that extremely flat regions such as

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

could have their groundwater threatened by sea salinisation. Cazenave was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2004. She was the 2012 recipient of the

William Bowie Medal The William Bowie Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union for "outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research". The award is the highest honor given by the AGU and is named in honor ...

. She is foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), of the Indian National Academy of sciences (India) and Royal Academy of Belgium.

Selected works

Cazenave has authored more than 200 scientific articles for international peer-reviewed journals. * A. Cazenave, K. Feigl, ''Formes et Mouvements de la Terre'', Belin Editions, 1994. * A. Cazenave, D. Massonnet, ''La Terre vue de l'espace'', Belin Editions, 2004.

Awards and honours

* Doisteau-Blutet Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1979) * CNRS Bronze Medal (1980) * Knight of the National Order of Merit (1981) * Doisteau-Blutet Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1990) * Kodak-Pathe Landucci Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1996) * Fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...

(AGU) (1996) * Officer of the National Order of Merit (1997) * Vening Meinesz Medal of the

European Geophysical Society The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headq ...

(1999) * Knight of the Legion of Honour (2000) * Arthur Holmes Medal & Honorary Membership (2005) * Commander of the National Order of Merit (2007) * Manley Bendall Prize, first Medal Albert of Monaco, the Oceanographic Institute (2008) * Elected foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2008) * Officer of the Legion of Honour (2010) * Prix Émile Girardeau the Naval Academy (2010) * Elected to the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Acade ...

(2011) * Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union (2012) * Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit (2015) * Prize Georges Lemaitre of the University Catholic of Louvain (2015) *

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...

(2018) jointly with Jonathan M. Gregory and John A. Church *

Vetlesen Prize The Vetlesen Prize is a prize in geology awarded jointly by Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation. The prize is generally regarded as the highest distinction in geologic studies, and the " Nob ...

of Columbia University's

Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is the scientific research center of the Columbia Climate School, and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. It focuses on climate and earth sciences and is located on a 189-acre (64 ...

and the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation (2020)

References

External links

Interview with Cazenave
(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cazenave, Anny 1944 births Living people Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead authors French oceanographers 20th-century French women scientists French geodesists Paul Sabatier University alumni Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Grand Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Women mathematicians Women geophysicists French geophysicists 20th-century French scientists 21st-century French women scientists 21st-century French scientists