The Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University

he Department of Meteorology at Stockholm University (MISU) conducts research and education spanning the atmosphere, ocean and physical climate sciences. We offer educational programmes at the Bachelors, Masters and PhD levels. Our research addresses fundamental questions concerning the dynamics, physics, chemistry and biogeochemistry of the atmosphere and ocean relevant for weather and climate. We study questions originating from the deep ocean to the upper atmosphere and from the tropics to the poles. In this effort, we use and develop theory, statistical methods, and numerical models in close interplay with observations. We also develop and lead observational research using satellite and surface-based measurements, including icebreaker expeditions to the Arctic.

MISU is embedded in a larger research environment including the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, the Baltic Sea Centre, and the Swedish e-Science Research Centre. The department is highly international, with over half our employees coming from outside Sweden. For more information about us, please visit the Department of Meteorology's website.

Homepage: https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-meteorology

Project description
Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) is a method for deliberate climate intervention, to temporarily dampen the ongoing global warming. It aims to make clouds more reflective and thereby more cooling, by adding sea salt aerosols. Although it is known that more aerosol particles lead to more smaller droplets, and greater reflection, aerosol-cloud interactions are associated with large uncertainties.

To realistically evaluate MCB and its potentials and risks, there is a need for better basic knowledge about aerosol influence on cloud properties, and how this in turn affects radiation, temperature and circulation. At the same time, it is necessary to consider ethical and societal perspectives of MCB as a form of climate intervention, e.g. in how to assess benefits and risks, when they are both uncertain and unevenly distributed among nations and generations.

This project is interdisciplinary, addressing physical, ethical and socio-political aspects of MCB, to support a general assessment of its feasibility.

Main responsibilities

You will work primarily with global climate modelling, and analysis of satellite data, to evaluate to what degree natural experiments and model simulations can provide knowledge on deliberate climate intervention, and to survey risks and benefits of potential implementation strategies against different climate change scenarios. The natural science questions, design of simulations, and analysis of results will be guided by questions of ethics and policy. The work will be done in collaboration with researchers in philosophy and political science, who are also part of the team. Within the framework of the project you will be expected to take independent initiative regarding analysis and inquiries and you will be part of a research group where you will also get a chance to contribute to advising of a PhD student.

Apply via Stockholm University's webpage:
https://su.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:966560/