Researcher in Modeling of Aerosols, Cold Clouds and Climate

There is scientific uncertainty about how much climate change will occur in future for any given scenario of emissions of greenhouse gases.  The reason for most of this uncertainty is that clouds are especially challenging to represent in numerical models of the atmosphere.  Clouds affect the Earth’s radiation budget. Changes in their properties, either due to global warming or aerosol pollution, can strongly modify any ongoing climate change.

Most of the volume of the troposphere is subzero, where clouds contain ice. There has been controversy about initiation of ice in clouds, especially regarding the identity of aerosol species (‘ice nuclei’) initiating the first ice and the time-dependence of their activity.

The position is part of a larger collaboration between Lund University in Sweden, NASA in USA and University of Oslo in Norway since 2019.  This international collaborative project has performed lab observations of ice initiation from solid aerosol material, informing the design of microphysical schemes of models of clouds and climate at Lund.  A new climate model is being developed to represent cloud processes with more realism in the project.

The post will involve global modeling with this new climate model at Lund to investigate mechanisms for the effect from ice nucleating aerosols on clouds and climate.  Focus will be given to impacts on cloud properties and extent, which affect the Earth’s radiation budget.  Thus, the post will aim to assess how long-term changes of solid aerosol loading may influence climate change.

Work duties:
Duties of the researcher position are to conduct research involving numerical modelling.   The researcher will improve microphysics schemes in a global model treating various mechanisms of ice initiation. Satellite and other observations of clouds will be collected so as to verify the accuracy of the global model.   Impacts on the climate from changes in ice-nucleating aerosols from anthropogenic emissions will be evaluated.

The work will involve coding with FORTRAN 90 in a linux environment.  The work will be performed in a team of atmospheric modellers at the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science.

Qualification requirements:
Requirements:

• The applicant must have a PhD degree in atmospheric science;
• Applicant must have experience of programming in a linux environment, preferably with FORTRAN.
• Oral and written proficiency in English;
• The PhD must have involved numerical modelling.

It is desirable to have documented knowledge from their university education in:

• Mathematics, especially differential equations:
• Numerical methods and/or computer programming;
• Cloud physics.
• It will be advantageous if the applicant is experienced with modeling of either clouds or climate.

In the application, applicants should provide evidence of how they meet these requirements.

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 will be a full-time of 100% fixed-term employment (SÄVA 5§ 1p LAS) for a year with start as soon as possible.

The advertised position will be located at the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science within the Faculty of Science in 2025, to be transferred to the newly formed Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences within the same faculty from 1 January 2026. By merging the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science and the Department of Geology in a joint and co-located organisation, the new department will strengthen the link between different research fields, develop new educational programmes and promote collaboration with society.

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.

Welcome to apply!