Postdoctoral fellow in modeling of of bioaerosols, layer-clouds and climate with AI Full-time

Postdoctoral Fellow In Modeling Of Bioaerosols, Layer-Clouds And Climate With Ai

Lunds University, Department Of Earth And Environmental Sciences

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world's top universities. The University has around 46 000 students and 8 500 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

Research and education at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo) addresses fundamental and applied questions on the Earth's past, present and future climate and environment, including people's interactions with the natural world and consequences for human wellbeing. MGeo advances and deploys cutting-edge methods, models and technologies in environmental science, quaternary sciences, bedrock geology, paleontology, physical geography, biodiversity and ecosystem science, remote sensing, Geographic Information Science (GIS), and computational science for health and environment, to study processes spanning from the microscopic to the planetary, across all time scales.

Subject description: Clouds in the atmosphere are formed by aerosol particles growing to become cloud-particles. Aerosol particles are ubiquitous in the environment. A minority of aerosols can initiate ice crystals in cold clouds that contain both supercooled cloud-liquid and ice. The properties and extent of these cold clouds, and their precipitation, can be controlled by the loadings of solid aerosol particles that initiate ice particles.

There is controversy about the identity of the chemical species of aerosol particles that initiate ice. Typically, they consist of solid material. There has been interest in biological aerosol particles since they can nucleate ice at warmer subzero temperatures than other types of ice-nucleating particles. Bacterial, fungal, algal, and plant/animal detritus particles are known to initiate ice.

It is an open question whether such bioaerosols can influence the Earth's radiation budget and hence the climate on the global scale. The relatively warm subzero temperatures of their activity in nucleating ice, compared to other types of ice-nucleating aerosols, implies that stratiform layer-clouds entirely at such subzero levels might be expected to be especially influenced by biological ice nucleation.

Global models are a tool to study aerosol effects on climate worldwide. Yet clouds are smaller than their numerical grid-boxes (about 100 km wide) and cannot be resolved. Conventionally, clouds have been treated statistically, introducing biases. A conventional model with superior treatment of the aerosol-cloud microphysics has been developed at Lund in recent years.

A postdoctoral fellow position for two years will research this topic by quantifying the linkage between bioaerosols, layer-clouds and climate using an AI approach.

Work duties: The duties involved in the post-doctoral fellow position are to conduct research. At this stage there is no teaching planned for this position as it will focus on research.

These tasks will be performed:

• Simulate a case of layer-cloud observed in USA with a cloud model, comparing with coincident observations;
• Predict the impact from various groups of bioaerosols on the simulated cloud properties, with the biological ice nucleation scheme already developed at Lund in 2021;
• Treat the linkage between bioaerosols and clouds on the planetary scale first with a conventional global model, and then with one that treats clouds with an AI scheme.

This will involve coding with the FORTRAN 90 and python languages in a linux environment. The work will be performed in a team of atmospheric modellers at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Qualification requirements: Appointment to a post-doctoral fellow position requires that the applicant has a PhD, or an international degree deemed equivalent to a PhD, within the subject of the position, completed no more than three years before the date of employment decision. Under special circumstances, the doctoral degree can have been completed earlier.

Applicants must have:

• PhD degree in meteorology or equivalent;
• BSc in physics or equivalent;
• Oral and written proficiency in English;
• Programming language experience in a linux environment with the Fortran and python languages.

Researchers with a background in numerical modelling, AI and knowledge of meteorology are encouraged to apply.

Assessment criteria and other qualifications: This is a career development position involving only research. The position is intended as an initial step in a career, and the assessment of the applicants will primarily be based on their research qualifications and potential as researchers.

For appointments to a post-doctoral position, the sole criterion will be good ability to develop and conduct high quality research.

Additional assessment criteria:

Documented knowledge, preferably from his / her university education, is required in:

• mathematics, especially differential equations;
• numerical methods and computer programming;
• physical meteorology, especially cloud microphysics, including the initiation and growth of ice particles;
• machine learning (e.g. neural networks).

Consideration will also be given to good collaborative skills and drive, and how the applicant's experience and skills complement and strengthen ongoing research within the department, and how they stand to contribute to its future development.

Terms of employment: This is a full-time, fixed-term employment with a maximum duration of two years. The period of employment is determined in accordance with the agreement “Avtal om tidsbegränsad anställning som postdoktor” (“Agreement on fixed-term employment as a post-doctoral fellow”) between Lund University, SACO-S and OFR/S, dated 1st February 2022.

The position is a fied-term contract for two years from the starting date. The position is set to start as soon as possible but no later than September 1st 2026.

Instructions on how to apply: Applications shall be written in English and be compiled into a PDF-file containing:

• résumé/CV, including a list of publications,
• a general description of past research and future research interests (no more than three pages),
• contact information of at least two references,
• copy of the doctoral degree certificate, and other certificates/grades that you wish to be considered.