FP7 ITARS ITN: Early Stage Researcher (ESR12): Study of the planetary boundary layer and its influence on cloud development
Applications are invited for a PhD position to work in the ITARS project, a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) within the FP7 progamme. ITARS (Initial Training for Atmospheric Remote Sensing) focuses on the synergistic application of high-end ground-based remote-sensing instrumentation that has the potential to substantially contribute to an improved understanding of aerosols, clouds, and aerosol-cloud interaction processes and their role for both climate and weather. ITARS Science objectives are
- to bring together experts from the aerosol and cloud community to efficiently tackle the problems of aerosol-cloud interaction as well as their relevance for climate and weather,
- to build close ties between industry and research to optimize instrumentation for future networks, and
- to assess the potential of advanced remote-sensing instrumentation and capabilities as an ingredient in a future observation system based on both ground-based networks and space-borne observations.
The selected candidate will study Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) dynamics and its influence on the development of low clouds over the semi-urban site of Athens, using a combination of multi-wavelength Raman aerosol, depolarization, ozone and water vapour lidar data. The combination of these multi-instrument data will enable the complete characterization of the PBL structure and its diurnal variation with high temporal and spatial (ca. 100-150 m) resolution. These data, in combination with radiosonde data of wind and relative humidity, will enable the study of the PBL dynamics and its influence on the development of low clouds over Athens under various meteorological conditions (high/low solar irradiance, sea/land breeze, etc.). The data obtained will also be used in the evaluation of the Air Quality Model CALIOPE, regarding the distribution of gaseous photochemical pollutants and particulate matter by synergistic observations (lidar and passive sensors).
Additionally, the Early Stage Researcher will be seconded to RADO Observatory, run by the National Institute of R&D for Optoelectronics (Magurele, Romania), to work on aerosol properties retrievals, and to Raymetrics S.A. (Paiania, Athens, Greece) to learn about water vapour lidar applications.
The post is available for 3 years at the Laser Remote Sensing Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens (Zografou Campus) and the salary will be commensurate with a Marie-Curie Early-Stage Researcher (ESR) position.
Nr. Job Positions: 1
Research Fields
Physics – Applied Physics
Career Stage
Early stage researcher or 0-4 yrs (Post graduate)
Research Profile
First Stage Researcher (R1)
Comment/web site for additional job details For more information on ITARS and on the applications process see www.itars.net ; for available instrumentation see http://www.physics.ntua.gr/~papayannis/index.htm
Requirements
| Required Education Level | |
|---|---|
| Degree | Master Degree or equivalent |
| Degree Field | Atmospheric/Environmental Physics or Meteorology, General Physics, Lasers, Remote Sensing, Mathematics |
| Required Languages | |
| Language | ENGLISH |
| Language Level | Good |
Additional Requirements
Very good computer programming skills (Matlab, LabView, IDL, Origin or Fortran/C++).
Willingness to work in team work.
Willingness to work during daytime and nighttime (during specific campaigns).
Applicants must be researchers who have not yet been awarded the doctorate degree and are in the first 4 years (full-time equivalent) of their research careers. This includes the period of research training, starting at the date of obtaining the degree which would formally entitle them to embark on a doctorate either in the country in which the degree was obtained, irrespective whether or not a doctorate is envisaged.
Applicants may not have resided or carried out their main activity in Greece for more than 12 months in the last 3 years. Short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.