An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Dr Marie Doutriaux-Boucher

Marie works as a climate feedback scientist. She is interested in modelling and observations.

Areas of expertise

  • Satellite retrievals (cloud properties, dust, precipitation, volcanic sulphur dioxide and ash).

  • Satellite data analysis (winds, clouds, dust, leaf area index).

  • Feedbacks analysis in Earth system models.

Current activities

Marie is a senior scientist working on climate feedbacks in the Earth's climate system, involved in a number of research projects within the Met Office and with international connections. Having previously worked on satellite observations of the Earth system, Marie joined the Global coupled modelling team in 2007, hoping to bridge the gap between observation and modelling. Recently, she used a coupled carbon-climate cycle model to examine the effect of suddenly doubling or quadrupling atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on plant-induced changes in climate over a five-year period.

Marie has been involved in the technical development of the Met Office climate prediction model: HadGEM2 family Earth System model, and is using this model to run and analyse ensemble experiments for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment. She is currently working to understand the link between aerosols and model precipitation errors. She is also comparing the vegetation as simulated by Met Office climate prediction model: HadGEM2 family with that obtained from satellite data retrievals, with the aim of understanding the reasons for differences.

Career background

Marie received a PhD in atmospheric physics in 1997 from the Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris. She was then a Postdoctoral Research Fellow supported by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) at the Laboratoire d'Optique Atmospheric (LOA), Lille. In September 1999 she joined EUMETSAT where she worked as a meteorological product expert. In 2001, she was back at LOA in Lille as an Assistant Professor, teaching physics. In 2005, she joined the Met Office working in the Satellite Imagery Application group. Since July 2007, Marie has been a member of the Global coupled modelling team.