Florence Rabier

Florence Rabier (born 1964) is a French meteorologist who was director-general of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts from 2016 to 2025. She works on numerical weather prediction (NWP). She was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2014, and she was elected President of the European Meteorological Society in 2026.

Early life and education Rabier joined Météo-France as an undergraduate engineer in meteorology from the École nationale de la météorologie. After completing her undergraduate she joined the Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University, where she earned a master's degree in meteorology.

Research and career From 1992 to 1998, Rabier worked at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), where she developed four dimensional variational data assimilation methods for NWP.

In 1998 she returned to Météo-France, where she was head of the observations team and then, from 2011, deputy director of GMAP (Groupe de Modélisation pour l'Assimilation et la Prévision). During this period, she improved methods for assimilating satellite observations in NWP. This included working on data from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), an instrument on European meteorological satellites which provides information on atmospheric temperature and humidity. During the International Polar Year (2007–2008) she played a leading role in the ConcordIASI field campaign over Antarctica.

Rabier moved back to the ECMWF in 2013, where she served as Director of Forecasts. In 2016 Rabier was appointed Director-General of ECMWF. From 2021, she has been a member of the international scientific board of the IFAB (International Foundation for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data). In 2022, she was promoted to Ingenieur general de classe exceptionnelle. 2014 2014 Académie de l'air et de l'espace Grand Prix de l'Académie 2022 Honorary Member American Meteorological Society 2024 Elcted member of the French Academy of Technologies 2025 Silver Medal of the European Meteorological Society

Selected publications