Postdoctoral and research engineer positions on data assimilation for the atmospheric composition (R2)
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Context And Mission
We are looking for two experienced candidates (a postdoctoral researcher and a research engineer) to join the Atmospheric Composition (AC) group within the Earth Sciences department at the BSC-CNS. The AC group is currently composed of about 30 people among researchers, engineers and students of different nationalities. It aims at better understanding and predicting the spatiotemporal variations of atmospheric pollutants along with their effects upon air quality, weather and climate. This is addressed through the continuous development and application of numerical models over multiple scales, from weather to climate and from global to urban scales.
The AC group develops and maintains its own forecast model MONARCH, which is a coupled meteorological-chemistry model that can be run at global and regional scales to simulate gaseous chemistry and aerosols plus their feedbacks on radiation. It provides operational air quality forecasts over Europe within the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Services (CAMS) and dust forecasts over Africa, Middle-East and Europe in the framework of the Barcelona Dust Regional Center (BDRC). Moreover, ensembles of MONARCH forecasts are computed daily to assimilate ground or satellite observations using a Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) approach. Data assimilation is also used by the AC team to compute retrospectives analyses of the atmospheric composition or to estimate dust emissions.
To address fundamental limitations in our current LETKF implementation for estimating gaseous and aerosol primary emissions, and with the aim of extending the control vector and assimilated observations in our system, the AC group is offering two research positions. The research engineer position will implement and maintain an alternative data assimilation framework at BSC facilities, that will run concurrently with the operational LETKF. Meanwhile, the postdoctoral researcher will further develop, test, evaluate and conduct research on methodological aspects of the new implementation for the atmospheric composition state, parameters and emission estimation problems. Successful candidates will design and perform experiments to assess advantages and disadvantages of the new implementation compared with the current assimilation system. These positions will interact with other members of the team, including atmospheric and computer science engineers and researchers.
This work on the use of satellite observations, numerical modelling, atmospheric chemistry state and emissions estimation is under the umbrella of the larger initiative on the “Modernization of observation networks and digitalization of production processes for the development of intelligent meteorological services in the context of climate change” in the framework of the European Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU. Female candidates are especially encouraged to apply.
Key Duties
For the postdoctoral researcher: · Collaborate in implementing state-of-the-art ensemble-variational schemes on the BSC’s HPC and adapt them to the MONARCH workflow. · Conduct data assimilation experiments with both synthetic and real observations of aerosols and gases, in analysis and forecast mode. · Evaluate results, perform sensitivity tests and identify potential improvements to the DA schemes. · Design and implement an emission inversion system for aerosols and gases in collaboration with other members of the team. · Conduct original research and dissemination in peer reviewed publications, internal and external meetings and conferences.
For the research engineer: · Implement and maintain a new state-of-the-art ensemble-variational code on the BSC’s HPC machines. · Develop and implement specific modules for aerosols and trace gas assimilation with MONARCH (model fields operations, interpolation routines, observation operators) · Integrate the new DA system in the research and operational MONARCH workflows. · Design and execute comparative, scalability and performance tests of both DA systems. · Propose and implement numerical and parallelization improvements · Contribute to code documentation, scientific publications and technical reports.
Requirements
Education
- Postdoctoral researcher: a doctoral degree in the field of atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, applied mathematics, physics, engineering, or related disciplines.
- Research engineer: a master degree on computer sciences, physics, mathematics or related disciplines. A doctoral degree on those fields will be considered as a plus.
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
Postdoctoral researcher :
· Experience with data assimilation and/or inverse methods in geosciences. · Experience with computationally demanding models (e.g. climate, atmosphere or ocean). · Experience in programming in Fortran, C++ or both. · Experience working in Unix/Linux environments.Research Engineer:
· Experience with C/C++ and Fortran · Experience with distributed programming (MPI). · Experience with in collaborative code development and version control systemsAdditional Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Experience with numerical weather prediction or atmospheric composition models.
- Demonstrated scientific expertise, including but not limited to peer reviewed publications.
- Experience with variational data assimilation.
- Experience with Python.
Competences
- Very good interpersonal skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to take initiative, prioritize and work under set deadlines.
- Ability to work both independently and within a team.