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Today's Topics:
1. Modelling African Climate Dynamics: Research Fellowship
(Douglas Parker)
2. PhD position at Reading Meteorology Department (Helen Dacre)
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 09:56:47 +0100
From: Douglas Parker <D.J.Parker@leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: [Met-jobs] Modelling African Climate Dynamics: Research
Fellowship
To: Doug Parker <d.j.parker@leeds.ac.uk>
Cc: met-jobs@lists.reading.ac.uk
Message-ID: <alpine.LRH.2.11.1507150947070.21538@see2-214.leeds.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA-2050) project
University of Leeds
Fixed term for 34 months - available immediately
We seek an ambitious scientist with interests in atmospheric dynamics and
the statistics of rainfall, to study the physical processes controlling
high-impact weather over West Africa. As part of a joint project with the
Met Office, CEH Wallingford and partners in Africa and Europe, we will use
kilometre-resolution numerical models to understand how patterns of
rainfall in Africa respond to local climatic feedbacks, global forcing and
climate change. The overall project aims to reduce uncertainty in the
projections of future African rainfall on the 5-40 year timescale, in
order that model projections are better able to support decision-making.
AMMA-2050 is funded by the joint DFID-NERC ?Future Climates for Africa?
(FCFA) programme. You will be part of a large collaborative research team
among the partners in the project, which includes expertise in
observations and modelling of land-atmosphere exchange and global
atmospheric dynamics, as well as expertise in socio-economic impacts of
climate change in West Africa. The work will be embedded in large research
groups at each of the institutions, offering opportunities for wider
collaborative work. You will have close collaboration with colleagues at
Leeds and elsewhere working in the IMPALA (Improving Model Processes for
African cLimAte) project, which is supplying most of the model data for
AMMA-2050. You will be expected to undertake placements with partner
organisations, including an extended research placement with the
Senegalese weather service (ANACIM) in Dakar, and several visits to the
Met Office in the UK. Similarly, we will host visits of partner scientists
to Leeds.
The multi-year convection-permitting numerical simulations to be used in
AMMA-2050 represent a step-change in our ability to model tropical
rainfall. The results will be used to improve our theoretical and
conceptual understanding of climate change and climate variability in the
tropics, and will influence the interpretation of climate predictions at
local level. The models and their interpretation will also be used to
drive collaborative work on socio-economic impacts of climate change in
the region, with our partners conducting studies of agricultural planning
and urban flooding in particular. You will contribute to our understanding
of how global climate change has impacts on local and regional climate of
Africa. There is the potential for a number of important publications
arising from the work. We aim that the results will increase confidence in
model climate projections for Africa, and will influence methods and
policies for exploitation of climate projections in tropical continental
regions.
You will join one of the largest Atmospheric Science research centres in
Europe, with a large and active group studying deep convection and
tropical dynamics, and a substantial climate-impacts programme. We have a
formal partnership with the Met Office, and we host the Directorate of the
UK's National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS).
You will be expected to contribute to the ongoing research in atmospheric
science in the School. Your work will lead to significant publications in
atmospheric and climate science and you will also present your research at
national and international meetings. You will communicate outcomes of the
research to relevant stakeholders outside academia.
You must have a PhD (or be close to obtaining) in a quantitative physical
science, such as Atmosphere Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics or
Meteorology, and experience of the use of large numerical model datasets.
You should be willing to collaborate actively with partners in Africa and
Europe, including research placements with selected partners. You will be
used to programming on a Unix/Linux operating system and have excellent
communication skills.
The University of Leeds? commitment to women in science has been
recognised with a national accolade. The University has received the
Athena Swan Bronze Award in recognition of our success in recruiting,
retaining and promoting women in Science, Engineering and Technology
(SET). The Faculty of Environment are in the process of preparing an
application for an Athena Swan award to recognise our commitment and work
in these areas.
Job sharing arrangements can be considered
For more details, see
https://jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=ENVEE1065
Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Doug Parker, email
d.j.parker@leeds.ac.uk, tel +44 (0)113 343 6739/6461.
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Joint Met Office Professor of Meteorology
Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science
School of Earth and Environment, tel. +44 (0)113 343-6739
University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. fax. +44 (0)113 343-6716
d.j.parker@leeds.ac.uk http://homepages.see.leeds.ac.uk/~lecdjp/
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2015 09:49:20 +0100
From: Helen Dacre <h.f.dacre@reading.ac.uk>
Subject: [Met-jobs] PhD position at Reading Meteorology Department
To: met-jobs@lists.reading.ac.uk
Message-ID: <55A61E90.8080809@reading.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
A PhD position is open at the University of Reading in the Meteorology
Department on the project:
*Air quality forecasting for health*
The provision of accurate air quality forecasts is very important to
provide guidance to those who are vulnerable to high pollution levels .
Therefore, the Met Of?ce routinely issues a 5-day air quality forecast
for the UK using their Air Quality Uni?ed Model (AQUM). For example,
during early April 2014 very high aerosol levels were predicted by AQUM
across much of the UK due to a combination of local pollution, southerly
winds and Saharan dust. High levels of pollution were observed in the
north-east of the UK but pollution levels were over-predicted in London
and the south-east. The aim of this project is to understand the reasons
behind these forecast errors and thus help improve the accuracy of air
quality forecasts.
AQUM predicts area average pollutant concentrations over typical areas
between 4 and 12km2 . However the observed, near-surface concentrations
with which they are routinely compared represent a single point within
that area. As the spread of concentrations within each area can be
considerable in reality, the model is often unable to represent the
observed variations in concentration at a speci?c location. This
mismatch between the spatial representativity of the model and observed
concentrations makes diagnosing errors in the AQUM forecasts very
dif?cult at present. In order to diagnose forecast errors we ?rst need
to be able to evaluate air quality forecasts in a meaningful way. This
will be achieved by i) creating interpolated maps of observations,
allowing a ?fairer? comparison between the model and observations, and
ii) exploring new veri?cation techniques which include the use of
additional model areas around the observation location in question to
derive a probability distribution of forecast values. The second
challenge will be to separate out the meteorological and chemical
sources of forecast error. This will be achieved by establishing
relationships between the errors in the Met Of?ce meteorological
forecast and the errors in the AQUM forecasts. This will determine the
degree to which the performance of the air quality forecasts is
dependent on that of the meteorological model, or on the
representativity of chemistry and emissions under different synoptic
situations.
*Collaboration:* The student will work with Dr Helen Dacre at the
University of Reading and also spend at least three months at the Met
Of?ce during the project allowing them to observe how their research
extends into an operational forecast centre. The Met Office
co-supervisors are Dr Marion Mittermaier and Dr Carlos Ordonez.
*Student pro?le:* This project would be suitable for students with a
degree in physics, mathematics or a closely related environmental or
physical science.
*Funding particulars:* This PhD project has guarenteed funding via a
NERC Industrial CASE Award. Funding is only available for UK students,
or EU students that have been resident in the UK for more than 3 years.
*Start date: *September 2015 or before.
*Contact:* Applicants should visit the University of Reading Meteorology
Department postgraduate web page to download an application form
http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/pg-research/pgrapplications.html
*Questions:* Please contact Helen Dacre (h.f.dacre@reading.ac.uk) if you
have any questions about the project.
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