The Earth and the environment Institutions and organizations: Who does what? Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR): the French National Agency les rayonnements ionisants). It fulfils research and audit remits with for Research, a public-sector administrative establishment (set up in regard to nuclear and radiological risks. Drawing on over 30 years’ 2005 as a public-interest group), charged with funding research pro- experience with earthquakes, IRSN conducts research on earthquake jects, selected on scientific and economic criteria. hazards, with regard to nuclear installation safety and protection. Airparif: the air quality monitoring network for the Île-de-France Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer (IFREMER): region (i.e. the region around Paris). the French Research Institute for the Use of Marine Resources, an Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN): the French Nuclear Safety organization contributing, through its work and expertise, to know - Authority, an independent state administration set up to oversee civil ledge of the oceans and their resources, to the monitoring of nuclear activities, in France, under the aegis of the French Act of marine and coastal environments, and to the sustainable develop- 13 June 2006 on transparency and safety in nuclear matters. ASN ment of maritime activities. For these remits, IFREMER designs and monitors, on behalf of the French state, nuclear safety and radio- deploys instruments for observational, experimental, and monitoring protection, to ensure the protection of workers, patients, the popu- purposes, and runs the French oceanographic fleet, on behalf of the lation and the environment from nuclear activities-related hazards. scientific community as a whole, along with managing oceano graphic databases. Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center: the local autho- rity establishment charged with air quality monitoring, in like man- Institut géographique national (IGN): the French National Geographical ner to Airparif in the Paris (France) region. Institute, a public-sector administrative establishment, having the Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières (BRGM): the French purpose of providing a description, in both geometric and physical Office of Geological and Mining Research, a public-sector establish- terms, of the surface of the French national territory and its land use. ment of industrial and commercial character, serving as reference One of its remits is the deployment and maintenance of geodetic and in the area of Earth sciences, with regard to resource management, leveling networks, related to the national geographical, planimetric and soil, and underground risk management. and altimetric coordinate reference system, and making available the corresponding information. Centre d’études techniques maritimes et fluviales (CETMEF): the French Center for Maritime and Waterways Technical Studies, char- Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing: a laboratory coming ged, on behalf of all agencies of the French Ministry of Infrastructures, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, concerned with scientific with developing and disseminating techniques, carrying out studies issues relating to the physicochemistry of the Earth’s atmosphere. and research, and providing engineering and audit services in the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA): an intergovernmen- areas of marine and waterway engineering and structures, marine tal agency, acting, under the aegis of the United Nations, for the pea- and waterway hydraulic phenomena, safety aids and systems, with ceful uses of nuclear power, and compliance with the Nonproliferation regard to maritime and inland navigation, transmissions, electronic Treaty. communications and satellite technologies. International Data Center (IDC): the body collecting the data coming Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES): the French National Space from stations set up under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Research Center, a public-sector establishment of industrial and (CTBT), and making these data available to the Treaty’s signatory commercial character, charged with implementing France’s space governments. policy. International Seismological Center (ISC): a nongovernmental orga- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS): a public-sec- nization, charged with the final collection, analysis and publication of tor establishment of scientific and technological character, carrying standard earthquake information from all around the world. out its research activity in all fields of knowledge. The National Institute International Water Management Institute: a nongovernmental orga- for the Sciences of the Universe (INSU: Institut national des scien- nization, based in Colombo (Sri Lanka), with a specialized remit to ces de l’Univers) has the remit of defining, developing and steering support water use policies, with regard to agriculture and water requi- national and international research efforts in the fields of astronomy, rements in developing countries. Earth and ocean sciences, and space science, carried out within CNRS and in public-sector educational establishments. Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory: a research institute, bringing Columbia University: US private university, founded in 1754, in New together some 200 scientists, carrying out work to document the ori- York City, as King’s College, one of the eight member universities of gin, evolution and future of the Earth’s natural resources. the so-called Ivy League, and taking the lead, among US universities, Leosphere: a French company, set up in 2004, specializing in atmosphe- in terms of Nobel Prize winners. ric measurement equipment. European Commission: one of the key organs of the European Union, LI–COR (Corporation): a US corporation, specialist manufacturers of it oversees the implementation of the texts – directives and regula- environmental measuring instruments. tions – adopted by the Council, and has sole power to propose legis- Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l’environnement (LSCE): lation. It has broad powers to steer common policies. In the area of the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory is a joint science and technology, its instrument is the Framework Program CEA–CNRS–Versailles - Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University research for Research and Technological Development (FP6 covered the unit, formed in 1998 through merger of the Low Radioactivity Center years 2002–2006, while FP7 covers the years 2007–13). (CFR: Centre des faibles radioactivités), and Climate and Environmental Hamburg University: set up in 1919, this now ranks as the fifth lar- Modeling Laboratory (LMCE). Within the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute gest university in Germany, with a roll of 40,000 students. Its research (IPSL), which brings together a number of laboratories, active in the work ranges across many scientific, and arts and humanities areas. fields of aeronomy, meteorology, oceanography and climate, LSCE Harvard University: US university, founded in 1636 in Cambridge carries out work along three directions: understanding of climate (Massachusetts), considered to be the oldest higher education esta- variability mechanisms on various timescales, investigation of bio- blishment in the United States. It has produced more than 40 Nobel geochemical cycles, geochronology and geomarker analysis. Prize winners, and claims first place in the worldwide academic ran- Météo France: the French national meteorological organization, a king of universities; it is also seen as the most richly endowed uni- public-sector establishment, charged with the prediction and inves- versity the world over. tigation of meteorological phenomena, and issuing meteorological Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP): the Paris Physics of warnings. the Earth Institute is a higher education and research establishment, Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS): this has been run under having as its remits the observation and study of natural phenomena, the aegis of UNESCO since 1968. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center research, education and the dissemination of knowledge in the area (PTWC) is hosted by the United States, in Ewa Beach (Hawaii). This of physical Earth sciences. It plays a part in seismic, and volcanic risk was set up in 1949, following the tsunami that devastated Hawaiian prevention, and mitigation. coves, on 1 April 1946. Subsequent to the tsunami that was caused Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire (IRSN): the French by an earthquake occurring in Chile, in 1960, the PTWC has been asso- Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute, a public-sector esta- ciated to an international monitoring and warning network, charged blishment of industrial and commercial character, set up in 2002, as with the continuous monitoring of seismic activity, and sea level across a result of the merging of the erstwhile Nuclear Protection and Safety the Pacific Ocean, and keeping informed most of the countries around Institute (IPSN: Institut de protection et de sûreté nucléaire), and that ocean, along with Hawaii, Alaska, and the West Coast of the USA, Ionizing Radiation Protection Office (OPRI: Office de protection contre to prevent, and mitigate the effects of tsunamis. 2 CLEFS CEA - No.57 - WINTER 2008-2009 L. Hobbs/PhotoLink Predicting the future evolution of climate entails a better understanding of the processes involved in exchanges of matter, and energy between the atmosphere, the ocean, and the continental biosphere. The two latter compartments