Florence Rabier (born 1971) is a French meteorologist who is Director-General of the

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by most of the nations of Europe. It is based at three sites: Shinfield Park, Reading, United Kingdom; Bologna, Italy; an ...

. She works on Numerical Weather Prediction. She was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2014.

Early life and education

Rabier joined

Météo-France Météo-France is the French national meteorological service. Organisation The organisation was established by decree in June 1993 and is a department of the Ministry of Transportation. It is headquartered in Paris but many domestic operatio ...

as an undergraduate engineer in meteorology from the

École nationale de la météorologie École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. After completing her undergraduate she joined the

Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University Paul Sabatier University (''Université Paul Sabatier'', UPS, also known as Toulouse III) is a French public university, in the Academy of Toulouse. It is one of the several successor universities of the University of Toulouse. Toulouse III was ...

, where she earned a master's degree in meteorology. She moved to the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

(

Pierre and Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University (french: link=no, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, UPMC), also known as Paris 6, was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussi ...

) for her doctoral studies, where she researched variations in meteorological data in the presence of barlocline instabilities. She became a senior scientist in 1998.

Research and career

Rabier held various positions at Météo-France, where she worked on numerical weather prediction. In 1997, she developed data assimilation methods to optimise the use of satellite observations in weather forecasting. In particular, Rabier worked on four dimensional variation methods. She was appointed Head of the Observation Section of Météo-France in 2001. In 2003, Rabier was made Chief Engineer of Bridges and Roads. She worked on the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), an instrument for European meteorological satellites. The IASI is an interferometer that permits the measurement of atmospheric and humidity profiles. IASI has been operating since 2007 and considerably improved operational meteorology. During the

International Polar Year The International Polar Years (IPY) are collaborative, international efforts with intensive research focus on the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor in 1875, but died before it first occurred ...

(2007-2008) Rabier was part of a field campaign over

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Rabier moved to the

(ECMWF) in 2013, where she served as Director of Forecasts. In 2016 Rabier was appointed Director-General of ECMWF. She uses

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

s (the

Cray-1 The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured and marketed by Cray Research. Announced in 1975, the first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. Eventually, over 100 Cray-1s were sold, making it one of the ...

) to better analyse and forecast the weather. Rabier worked alongside Anne Grete Staume on the

ADM-Aeolus Aeolus, or, in full, Atmospheric Dynamics Mission-Aeolus (ADM-Aeolus), is an Earth observation satellite operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was built by Airbus Defence and Space and launched on 22 August 2018. ADM-Aeolus is the fir ...

mission, which launched in 2018. She was appointed Chair of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

Advisory Committee on Earth Observations in 2021.

Awards and honours

* 2014

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

* 2014

Académie de l'air et de l'espace The Académie de l'air et de l'espace (AAE) is the French national Air and Space Academy. Established in 1983 in Toulouse on the initiative of André Turcat, the aims of the academy are the following: "To encourage the development of high quality ...

Grand Prix de l'Academie

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabier, Florence 1971 births Living people French women scientists 21st-century women scientists French meteorologists Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni Paul Sabatier University alumni Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Women meteorologists Météo-France staff