Postdoctoral research scientists for MOSAiC: OCEAN (Modelling and Observations) – Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

Postdoctoral research scientist for MOSAiC: OCEAN modelling

Background and tasks
The observational part of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) is a year-long field experiment with the German icebreaker Polarstern in the Arctic Ocean. MOSAiC is one of the most comprehensive and ambitious field programs in polar research of the last decades. It will directly link in-situ, airborne, autonomous, and remote sensing observations with numerical models on different spatial and temporal scales. More information is available from the project home page (http://mosaicobservatory.org/), in particular from the science and implementation plans.

The successful candidate will be a member of the section Physical Oceanography of the Polar Seas at the AWI. The work will directly contribute to the measurement program of the OCEAN team across the main components of the central observatory, on Polarstern, and in the distributed network. The focus will be on 3-dimensional variability in the upper ocean boundary layer and the upper halocline of the central and Eurasian Arctic Ocean. The ultimate aim of this and a position advertised in parallel is to characterize (sub)mesoscale processes in the ocean under the Arctic sea-ice and atmosphere. This should lead to improvements in the parameterization of such processes in regional and global general circulation models of the ocean, sea-ice and, ultimately, in coupled climate models.

Primary tasks

  •  Participation in MOSAiC OCEAN team activity in the field for up to 3 months at a time
  • Running and tuning sea ice-ocean general circulation models, e.g. FESOM, with respect to modifying and implementing novel sub-gridscale parameterisations for the upper ocean
  • Close collaboration with the MOSAiC observational teams, in particular team OCEAN, to obtain improved model parameterization of (sub)mesoscale upper ocean processes
  • Close collaboration with the modelling groups at AWI
  • Dissemination of results to other MOSAiC teams
  • Presentation of results at conferences and publication in peer-reviewed journals

Additional tasks

  •  Cooperation with observational and modelling projects running in parallel to MOSAiC
  • Communicating results at scientific meetings, conferences and to the public

Qualifications
The successful candidate needs to be a reliable person with excellent teamwork and communication skills. The person is expected to participate in national and international project meetings and workshops. Further essential qualifications are

  •   PhD in natural sciences
  •   Experience in physical oceanography
  •   Experience in running sea ice-ocean general circulation models
  •   Ability to work in a team
  •   Programming / computing skills, including one higher level programming language (e.g. Fortran), experience in high performance computing and processing/plotting (e.g. Matlab, Python)

Furthermore, the following qualifications are beneficial

  •   Experience in working in and studying the Polar Regions
  •   Experience in running general circulation models with unstructured grids
  •   Practical experience with participation in expeditions
  •   German language skills
  •   Scientific publication record

For more information, please contact Dr. Benjamin Rabe (Benjamin.Rabe@awi.de)

Learn more and apply – Modelling

Postdoctoral research scientist for MOSAiC: OCEAN observations

Background and tasks
The observational part of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) is a year-long field experiment with the German icebreaker Polarstern in the Arctic Ocean. MOSAiC is one of the most comprehensive and ambitious field programs in polar research of the last decades. It will directly link in-situ, airborne, autonomous, and remote sensing observations with numerical models on different spatial and temporal scales. More information is available from the project home page (http://mosaicobservatory.org/), in particular from the science and implementation plans.

The successful candidate will be a member of the section Physical Oceanography of the Polar Seas at the AWI. The work will directly contribute to the measurement program of the OCEAN team across the main components of the central observatory, on Polarstern, and in the distributed network. The focus will be on 3-dimensional variability in the upper ocean boundary layer and the upper halocline of the central and Eurasian Arctic Ocean. The ultimate aim of this and a position advertised in parallel is to characterize (sub)mesoscale processes in the ocean under the Arctic sea-ice and atmosphere. This should lead to improvements in the parameterization of such processes in regional and global general circulation models of the ocean, sea-ice and, ultimately, in coupled climate models.

Primary tasks

  •   Preparation and planning of buoy deployments within the MOSAiC Distributed Network
  •   Participation in MOSAiC OCEAN team activity in the field for up to 3 months at a time
  •   Processing and analysis of the buoy data in conjunction with other measurements by all MOSAiC observational teams
  •   Close collaboration with the modelling groups at AWI
  •   Dissemination of results to other MOSAiC teams
  •   Presentation of results at conferences and publication in peer-reviewed journals

Additional tasks

  •  Cooperation with observational and modelling projects running in parallel to MOSAiC
  • Communicating results at scientific meetings, conferences and to the public

Qualifications

The successful candidate needs to be a reliable person with excellent teamwork and communication skills. The person is expected to participate in national and international project meetings and workshops. Further essential qualifications are

  •   PhD in natural sciences
  •   Experience in physical oceanography
  •   Practical experience with participation in expeditions
  •   Ability to work in a team
  •   Programming / computing skills for data processing / plotting (e.g. Matlab, Python)

Furthermore, the following qualifications are beneficial

  •   Experience in working in and studying the Polar Regions
  •   German language skills
  •   Scientific publication record
  •   Experience in working with output from sea ice-ocean general circulation models

For more information, please contact Dr. Benjamin Rabe (Benjamin.Rabe@awi.de)

Learn more and apply – Observations

 

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