Context And Mission
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (Life, Earth and Engineering sciences) under one roof.
The Earth Sciences Department of the BSC (BSC-ES) carries out research into modelling and understanding the behavior of the Earth’s system. BSC-ES focuses on atmospheric emissions, air quality, mineral dust, climate variability and change, global health resilience, and Earth system services for end users.
Within the BSC-ES, the Atmospheric Composition Group develops a modelling capability to combine atmospheric dynamical and chemical processes relevant at a wide range of spatial scales, and investigates their impacts on weather, air quality, climate, health and ecosystems. A core activity of the group is dust modelling and forecasting, and because of its excellence, the BSC-ES hosts the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System for North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and an AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms. The group is also highly active in the EC Framework Programs and collaborates with the administrations on competitive projects and contracts.
Mineral dust and combustion aerosols carry nutrients that, upon deposition, can fertilize the open ocean, stimulate phytoplankton growth and influence the global carbon cycle. The amount of bioavailable (or soluble) particles deposited largely depends on their origin, size distribution, composition, chemical processing during transport and environmental conditions. Uncertainties remain in how natural and human factors affect the complex and interconnected processes that control nutrient deposition, both in present climate and under future scenarios. Key questions include the present and future evolution of the contribution of dust sources and wildfires to the nutrient cycling, as well as the impact of emission mitigation policies or climate changes.
The Atmospheric Composition group from the ES-BSC is looking for a postdoctoral fellow to improve our understanding of the natural and anthropogenic influences to the nutrient deposition in the ocean. Part of the research will be conducted with the EC-Earth Earth System model, which has an advanced representation of tropospheric chemistry and aerosols, including the atmospheric iron cycle. The researcher will tackle two major sources of nutrients : mineral dust and fires, and work to disentangle their contribution in present and future climates. The work will include exploring the role of vegetation and land-use changes on dust emission, as well as the analysis of different wildfire datasets and the impact of refined emission estimates. The effect of these sources and their variability in ocean biogeochemistry will be explored in collaboration with other researchers in the Department and external collaborators.
Within BSC, the researcher will be able to follow multiple training activities, including those aimed at improving coding and data analysis, scientificand project writing abilities, or project management. All this will be implemented via the formal coursesorganized by the Education and Training team and Human Resources, andparticipation in the regular seminars organized by the department.The proposed research will be managed through biweekly meetings withthe supervisor to ensure full coherence between the research planned andthe general objectives of the department. The researcher will work in a highly collaborative environment, with tight links with other researchers in the Atmospheric Composition group, other members of the department and associate researchers, including ocean biogeochemistry modelers. In this context, the applicant will beencouraged to participate in discussions and meetings involving several funded projects related to the fellow´s work, including the Spanish ministry grant entitled BIOTA (Ocean BIOgeochemistry response To refined Atmospheric iron inputs in present and future climate) led by the supervisor, the ESA contracts OREO and PYROMAR both aiming at improving our understanding of aerosols’ atmospheric deposition, and other core projects of the group focusing on dust and climate research, the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust. Female candidates are especially encouraged to apply.
Key Duties
* Contribute to model developments related to the atmospheric nutrient cycle in Earth System models, particularly improving the representation of natural aerosol sources.
* Design model experiments and run them in HPC systems.
* Gather observations and evaluate model experiments.
* Develop original research and analysis strategies.
* Participate in collaborative projects with partner institutions.
* Present results at international meetings.
* Publish results in high-impact peer-reviewed journals.
* Contribute ideas for new research projects.
* Other duties include contributing to the development of common analysis tools; assisting in grant applications; and other duties as assigned.
Requirements
Education
* Having a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry, Environmental engineering, Meteorology, Physics, or related discipline.
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
* Advanced understanding of atmospheric aerosols and knowledge of the Earth System components and their interactions.
* Experience in atmospheric, climate, chemistry or aerosol model developments.
* Excellent computing skills in high-level computer languages (FORTRAN is valued).
* Experience with UNIX / LINUX environments and with scripting languages (such as bash).
* Experience atmospheric science data formats (NetCDF) and with scientific software and tools (CDO, NCO, Python or R) .
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
* Previous experience with Earth System Models will be valued.
* Experience in analyzing climate information will be valued.
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