FP7 ITARS ITN: Early Stage Researcher (ESR3): Synergy between Doppler Radar and Raman lidar for aerosol investigation
Applications are invited for a PhD position to work in the ITARS project, a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) within the FP7 programme. 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 assess and quantify for the first time the potential of the synergic use of lidar and radar techniques for the study of atmospheric aerosol.
Advanced multi-wavelength Raman lidar is the most powerful technique for monitoring the temporal and vertical variability of atmospheric aerosols and is the unique technique able to provide range-resolved aerosol microphysical properties. On the other hand, recent studies show that microwave radars are able to detect ultragiant aerosol particles of volcanic origin.
The combination of lidar and radar observation of atmospheric parameters has already been applied to the retrieval of the effective radius of cloud droplets and ice crystals. The capability of characterizing aerosol layers over a wide size range, exploiting the synergy between lidar and radar observations and the implementation of a methodology to determine aerosol effective radius from submicron to ultragiant dimensional ranges, is the main objective of the PhD project. The performances of lidar and radar in the observation of aerosol particles in dimensional range from submicron to ultragiant will be assessed using both numerical simulations and real measurements. The database of simultaneous observations from the collocated Raman lidar and Doppler polarimetric radar at the atmospheric observatory of the CNR-IMAA, called CIAO (CNR-IMAA Atmospheric Observatory) is the backbone of the research project.
The Early Stage Researcher will be seconded to the Technische Universiteit Delft (The Netherlands) to gain more experience on Doppler radar. Possibly, a further secondment could take place.
The post is available for 3 years at Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Metodologie per l’Analisi Ambientale (Potenza, Italy), in cooperation with the University of Basilicata (Potenza, Italy), which will award the PhD title. The salary will be commensurate with a Marie-Curie Early-Stage Researcher (ESR) position.
Nr. Job Positions: 1
Research Fields
Applied Physics, Remote Sensing
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 ; see www.ciao.imaa.cnr.it for the instrumentation.
Requirements
| Required Education Level | |
|---|---|
| Degree | Master Degree or equivalent |
| Degree Field | Atmospheric Physics, Meteorology, Remote sensing, Mathematics, Geosciences |
| Required Languages | |
| Language | ENGLISH |
| Language Level | Good |
Additional Requirements
Good computer programming skills.
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 Italy for more than 12 months in the last 3 years. Short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.