[ES_JOBS_NET] Postdoctoral Researcher in Air Quality at NCAR

[Alma Hodzic]

Dear colleagues,

The Department of Atmospheric Chemistry at the National Center for 
Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher in Air 
Quality Modeling and Data Assimilation.

Basic Function of Job: The Postdoctoral Researcher will engage in 
multidisciplinary research focused on investigating the effect of 
tropospheric clouds on photochemistry and ozone formation. In 
particular, he/she will conduct original research to quantify the bias 
in ozone predictions that can be explained by inaccurate predictions of 
clouds. He/she will perform WRF-Chem model simulations and compare them 
with observations from recent field campaigns (SEAC4RS and DISCOVER-AQ) 
to assess model performance in simulating actinic fluxes, photolysis 
rates and ozone over the continental U.S. under various cloud 
conditions. He/she will work on improving the representation of clouds 
and radiation in the WRF-Chem model through data assimilation, and will 
assess the sensitivity of ozone predictions to those improvements.


Specific duties include:

- Perform WRF-Chem simulations over the continental U.S. and evaluate 
model ability to simulate actinic fluxes and photolysis rates for 
contrasting clear-sky vs. cloudy conditions using field campaign data. 
Acquire, process and analyze the SEAC4RS and DISCOVER-AQ data.

- Assess the effect of cloud data assimilation on photolysis and ozone 
predictions. Couple the Multi-sensor Advection-Diffusion nowCast 
(MADCast)-GSI system with the WRF-Chem model. Evaluate the impact of 
satellite-corrected clouds on photochemistry and ozone predictions.

- Communicate the results of the research through publication in 
peer-reviewed journals, meeting proceedings, presentations at scientific 
meetings, and contributions to scientific assessments.


The ideal candidate will have a background in atmospheric modeling, data 
assimilation and a demonstrated record of research in areas relevant to 
this position. The candidate should also have extensive experience with 
data analysis and visualization tools (including the ability to program 
in Fortran and e.g. NCL/IDL/Matlab) and numerical models (e.g. WRF 
and/or WRF-Chem). This appointment may be renewed annually for a maximum 
of three years, contingent upon satisfactory performance and the 
availability of research funds.



Review of complete applications will begin March 20, 2015; however, the 
position will remain open until filled.

To apply use the following link:
https://ucar.silkroad.com/epostings/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.jobinfo&jobid=217677&company_id=15947&version=1&source=ONLINE&JobOwner=962105&startflag=1 



Please forward this email to anyone that might be interested in this 
position.

Thanks,

Alma Hodzic
Scientist
Atmospheric Chemistry Division
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO
phone: 303-497-1463
email: alma at ucar.edu