[ES_JOBS_NET] post-doctoral position in Arctic snow-vegetation-climate interactions

[christine Delire]

Context

Météo-France is offering a postdoctoral research position in
land-surface-climate interactions as part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020
project ESM2025
<https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwib7pKnv_vwAhWQxIUKHVlWB0AQFnoECAYQAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.umr-cnrm.fr%2FIMG%2Fpdf%2Fesm2025-submitted-proposal-sep-210687566.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2wLa2XO3nOoyNKMqqaB2lz>
– Earth System Models (ESM) for the future. This position is available for 24
to 36 months, depending on the candidate’s experience. The position will be
based in Toulouse at CNRM <http://www.umr-cnrm.fr/?lang=en>, the National
Centre for Meteorological Research, a joint research unit of Météo-France
and CNRS.
About the project

ESM2025 (01/06/2021 – 31/05/2025) is a multidisciplinary project that will
develop the next generation of European Earth System Models and include
improved representations of climate response to biophysical processes,
anthropogenic emissions and land use.
Work environment

The position will be based at CNRM (42 avenue Gaspard Coriolis, Toulouse,
France). The successful candidate will join the climate group
<https://www.umrcnrm.fr/spip.php?rubrique89&lang=en> of CNRM, focusing on
understanding scale interactions, interactions between the various
components of the climate system, the response of the climate system to
anthropogenic forcing, and sources of variability and long-term
predictability.
Salary

Salary will be provided according to Météo-France salary rates. Depending
on the experience of the selected candidate, the gross monthly salary shall
be from 3280 to 4025€.
Science

Permafrost soils store about twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. The
climate-induced thawing of the permafrost has the potential to release huge
amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, representing one of the
strongest positive climate feedbacks. Current ESM cannot predict the
strength of this feedback with confidence because the rate of thawing of
permafrost involves complex processes and feedbacks that are not or poorly
described. During the APT
<http://www.apt-permafrost-research.net/en/context.php> – Acceleration of
Permafrost Thaw – project, the team of Florent Dominé at the UMI-Takuvik
<http://www.takuvik.ulaval.ca/index-fr.php> (Quebec) has identified two
important shortcomings of current ESMs.

First, the snow models used in current ESMs are not able to reproduce the
properties of Arctic snow because they were mainly developed for Alpine
snow where the dominant processes are different (Barrere et al. 2017;
Domine et al. 2019). In Arctic snow the very high temperature gradient
between the soil and the atmosphere generates an upward transport of water
vapor through the snowpack that results in low density layers at the base
of the snowpack. This process affects the insulating properties of the
snowpack in a way that could limit winter cooling of the ground more
effectively than alpine snow. Without this process, ESMs might overestimate
winter cooling of the soil in the Arctic and underestimate the future
permafrost thaw.

Secondly, there are strong positive feedbacks between snow and vegetation
in the Arctic that are likely to accelerate permafrost thaw. This is
because the already observed increasing shrub cover tends to enhance the
thermal insulation properties of the snow cover. These effects could lead
to an increase and/or an acceleration of CO2 and CH4 releases to the
atmosphere. However, as identified by the same team, this feedback may be
counteracted by the occurrence of melting events at the beginning of the
snow season. These events are likely to become more frequent under warming
conditions (Barrere et al. 2018).

The impacts of these observed processes will be investigated during this
post-doctoral work.
Tasks

The successful candidate will contribute to ongoing developments in
ISBA-CTRIP (Decharme et al. 2019; Delire et al. 2020), the land surface
model of CNRM-ESM-2 (Séférian et al. 2019) in order to (1) improve the
representation of arctic snow; (2) propose simple parametrizations to
represent snow-vegetation interactions that control permafrost thaw; and
(3) realize new future scenarios with CNRM-ESM-2 to analyse the evolution
of arctic snow and permafrost characteristics. All developments will be
tested on fully instrumented sites (ex: Domine et al. 2021).
Requirements and qualification

A PhD in snow sciences is required, especially based in arctic environment.
A solid experience in land-surface numerical modelling is also required. An
experience in in-situ arctic snow and/or in snow-vegetation interaction
observational studies will also be greatly appreciated. A good practise of
written and spoken English and French is required. All the tasks require
gook skills in Fortran, Python and Unix, as well as scientific writing.
Application and timeline

For full consideration, an application letter including a detailed
statement of research interest, along with a curriculum vitae – Including
research experience, publications and conferences and computing skills –
and the names, telephones and email addresses of 2 referees should be sent
by email before July 11, 2021 to:

*bertrand.decharme[at]meteo.fr <http://meteo.fr>*,*
christine.delire[at]meteo.fr <http://meteo.fr> *and*
florent.domine[at]gmail.com <http://gmail.com>*

After examination of the applications, a shortlist of candidates will be
auditioned end of July, making it possible to start between October, 1st
and December, 1st 2021.
-- 
Christine Delire,
cdelire at gmail.com
Toulouse
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