PHD POSITION] DUSTDN DOCTORAL NETWORK DC11 - MODELLING SUPER-COARSE DUST AND ITS EFFECT UPON CLIMATE (R1)

About BSC The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain.
It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe.
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Context And Mission The Dust-DN doctoral network Atmospheric dust or mineral dust (or simply “dust”) is a major atmospheric aerosol, and it gives us one of the most visible and detectable aspects of transboundary transport of atmospheric constituents, impacting visibility, radiation and climate.
What is less evident are its quantitative impacts on health, transportation and energy production.
Atmospheric dust is not fully understood at the fundamental level (microphysical properties, dust emissions, source regions) and hence atmospheric models fail to fully reproduce its impacts.
Moreover, dust observations using ground-based instrumentation, remote sensing and aircraft are abundant, but not evenly distributed; in particular they are missing near the major dust sources.
Moreover, the techniques are still under development, with each giving a different picture of a phenomenon with multiple facets.
For example, it is now known that super-coarse and giant dust particles have gone undetected for a long time due to limitations in the measurement and modelling tools that have been in use for decades, and this misdetection alters the understanding and the prediction of a number of processes.
Finally, dust affects the environment, society, and several economic sectors, with impacts on the transportation and energy sectors for example, the nature and cost of which is not fully understood and quantified.
Several methodologies exist to study mineral dust, each giving its own differing picture of a complex phenomenon.
numerical modelling, remote sensing, in-situ observations, laboratory research.
We establish the Dust Doctoral Network (Dust-DN), in order to address gaps in the understanding of dust and its impacts by linking the different disciplines and methods.
The aim is to train a team of early career scientists into overcoming compartmentalism in this field of science, and into developing a multi-disciplinary approach to mineral dust.
Dust-DN will set up a network of academic and non-academic partners working on different aspects of dust research, and will coordinate a program of doctoral projects that will enhance knowledge across a broad range of fundamental, but linked, components of the atmospheric dust life cycle and its impacts.
The projects will span across the disciplines of atmospheric sciences (dust processes, modelling, and remote sensing), geology (dust emissions and source regions), as well as the impacts on society and economic sectors.
The knowledge will be shared among participating institutions and the wider public and scientific community.
Common activities will be held, so as to enhance the network among the partner institutions and among the doctoral researchers, delivering an ambitious advanced training program for capacity building.
The selected candidate will join the Atmospheric Composition (AC) group within the Earth Sciences Department of the BSC (BSC-ES).
The AC group is composed of more than 40 scientists and engineers and seeks to understand the sources, sinks, atmospheric lifecycles, and effects of atmospheric pollutants across a broad range of spatiotemporal scales, from local to global and from short- (weather) to long-term (climate) scales.
The group develops atmospheric chemistry and Earth System models, operates air quality forecasting systems, and applies its knowledge in cross-cutting research, addressing issues such as air quality policy, and socio-economic impacts such as health.
The AC group hosts the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System Regional Center for North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and an AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms.
The group actively participates in the NASA’s EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) instrument mission, hosts an ERC Consolidator Grant (FRAGMENT) on the effects of dust mineralogy upon climate, and is involved in numerous European projects tackling aerosol effects on climate (e.
., FORCeS, FOCI, CERTAINTY).
The doctoral project Doctoral Candidate 11 (DC11) – “Modelling super-coarse dust and its effects on climate” Enrolled in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) PhD programme on “Environmental Engineering”, the doctoral candidate will develop the research at BSC-ES.
Coarse and super coarse dust dominate the mass of dust in the atmosphere and are strongly underestimated in the current generation of climate models, representing one of the major uncertainties in the assessment of dust effects upon climate.
This project will focus on better understanding and quantifying the abundance of coarse and super coarse dust particles and their effects upon climate.
The doctoral candidate will work with climate models to better represent coarse and super-coarse dust by improving the description of the dust emitted Particle Size Distribution (PSD), sedimentation, and turbulent transport.
The new developments will be constrained through a variety of field campaign observations.
Tailored sensitivity tests will be conducted to quantify the relative abundance of coarse and super-coarse dust and the importance of the associated processes.
Ultimately, this will result in a better estimate of the dust radiative forcing.
The doctoral candidate will be based at BSC in Barcelona, Spain and will be supervised by Prof.
Carlos Pérez García-Pando (BSC) and Dr.
María Gonçalves Ageitos (BSC/UPC).
The project will include three planned secondments of 1 month each, consisting of one at the University of Reading (URED) with Dr.
Claire Ryder, to bring in additional observational constraints to represent the super-coarse dust fractions, one at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), with Dr.
Vassilis Amiridis, to allow the transfer of knowledge for the modelling of super coarse spherical and non-spherical dust particles in climate models, and one at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), with Dr.
Martina Klose, to allow the transfer of knowledge on the turbulence effects upon particle sedimentation.
Key Duties Take responsibility for the scientific project that they are involved in, and the instruments and/or software required.
Collect scientific knowledge through experiments and/or numerical modelling, and data analysis.
Develop tailor-made data processing methods.
Advance the fields of research in atmospheric dust and/or the related measurement and/or modelling techniques.
Participate in the Dust Doctoral Network training and networking activities.
Publish research results in scientific peer reviewed journals, and present at conferences and workshops.
Requirements Education The candidates are required to possess an excellent master’s degree (or equivalent) in a physical or mathematical science subject (or other natural science discipline) and to not have any kind of PhD degree.
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience A recommendation from the DustDN pre-screening phase is required.
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience Experience in applying broad scientific knowledge to a range of specific problems or scenarios.
Previous research experience and/or previous interest in the atmospheric sciences, meteorology or closely related discipline will be appreciated.
Experience with written or oral scientific communications.
Publication record.
Competences Motivation for research on atmospheric dust.
Experience or aptitude to develop scientific software (computer-based programming).
Demonstrated ability in being a strong team player.
Strong international mobility for the purpose of research, training, and dissemination is mandatory.
Fluency in written and oral English is compulsory.
Conditions ​​​​​​​ The selected candidate will be appointed under a 36-month full-time employment contract.
A competitive financial aid package will be offered to the successful candidate, with a gross annual salary of € (including living and mobility allowances, based on current social security rates).
Additional allowances, up to € per year, may be available depending on family status and other needs, as per MSCA provisions.
Additionally, a meal voucher card worth €675 per year will be provided.
In addition to access to the public health system, there is an option to enroll in private health insurance, with BSC covering 80% of the cost, leaving the candidate responsible for only €8.
per month.
Candidates can also choose to allocate a portion of their gross salary towards products or services such as public transportation, childcare vouchers, and/or including family members in BSC’s private medical insurance, resulting in tax and economic savings.
As per current Spanish law, upon completion of the contract, the candidate will receive compensation of € for each of the three years worked.
Applications procedure and process All applications must be made through BSC website and contain.
A full CV in English including contact details A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process.
After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview.
A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.
The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information follow this link Deadline The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired.
Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.
OTM-R principles for selection processes BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R).
This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.
We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
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