Postdoctoral Research Assistant – University of Reading

Postdoctoral Research Assistant – University of Reading

We are looking for a Post-doctoral researcher to investigate the impact of the Weddell sea polynya on the coupled climate system. This is a 3-year post-doctoral position on climate dynamics in the Southern Ocean.

This 3-year position is part of the large-scale H2020 SO-CHIC project regrouping 15 institutions across Europe (http://www.sochic-h2020.eu/). The overall objective of SO-CHIC is to understand and quantify variability of heat and carbon budgets in the Southern Ocean through an investigation of the key processes controlling exchanges between the atmosphere, ocean, and sea ice using a combination of observational and modelling approaches.

The Weddell sea polynya represents a large perturbation of the surface temperature, confined by km-scale gradients at the ice edge, which delivers intense heat (100s W/m2) fluxes to the atmosphere. The present position will investigate the impact of the polynya on the ocean-atmosphere system, including potential teleconnections with the Northern Hemisphere climate (e.g. Indian monsoon, European climate, AMOC). Implications for the storage of heat and carbon in the Southern Ocean are a central goal of this research.

The approach will combine the design and analysis of high-resolution atmosphere–only simulations to determine the atmospheric response to the polynya with the analysis of high-resolution coupled simulations from the PRIMAVERA project.

The successful applicant will be supervised by D. Ferreira. This research work will involve a close collaboration with Dr. Wonson Park and a post-doctoral research assistant in GEOMAR (Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel), Germany.

You will have:

1. A PhD, or soon to be completed, in oceanic/atmospheric science, climate science, geophysical fluid dynamics or a related field.
2. Experience with numerical modelling and HPC.
3. Good writing and communication skills.

Interviews – Week beginning 13 July 2020.