Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Associate

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Associate of up to three year duration to work on modelling deliberate climate intervention to cool the planet and counterbalance the impacts of global warming.

The climate crisis means that the targets set by COP21 may soon be exceeded leading to increasingly damaging climate impacts. While stringent mitigation methods are obviously essential, greenhouse gas concentrations and the associated global warming and climate change are projected to continue to increase under all future scenarios exposing the Earth to increasingly damaging extreme events and potential tipping points. You will be expected to work on modelling the impacts of solar radiation modification (SRM) to provide an objective assessment of their feasibility.

You will be expected to work closely with colleagues at the University of Exeter, but also with colleagues in the national and international arena and with colleagues at the Met Office Hadley Centre. They will be expected to produce peer-reviewed papers documenting the results.

It is clear that the impacts of SRM depend strongly on both the scenario which depends on the baseline climate change and the amount of cooling applied, and the strategy which depends on the method of cooling (e.g. SAI, MCB) and the location of any deployment. Our recent investigations into MCB have suggested that any local application that is strong enough to significantly perturb the radiation budget leads to strong localised cooling. This can excite strong impacts on global atmospheric and oceanic circulation through various teleconnections. In this project, you will perform various MCB scenarios and strategy simulations using variants of the UKESM1 climate model and examine the impacts on key climate metrics. The impacts on vegetation, crops, and the carbon cycle will be investigated. Candidates should have strong experience in climate modelling, preferably with the UKESM1 climate model, and experience of analysing mean climatic changes and changes in extreme climate variables, and an interest in the carbon cycle. This post is funded by NERC under the MACLOUD proposal under the guidance of Prof Jim Haywood and Prof Robin Chadwick.

About you

Grade F: Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in maths, physics, computer-science, meteorology, or a related numerate scientific discipline. Applicants will be a nationally recognised authority in atmospheric sciences and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. You will also be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required. Applicants will be able to perform analysis of climate model/aerosol-cloud process model/machine learning as appropriate to the positions noted above, and will have an appreciation of the role of aerosols in climate change.

Grade E: Applicants will possess or be nearing completion of a relevant PhD or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will be expected to learn to perform analysis of climate model/aerosol-cloud process model/machine learning as appropriate to the positions noted above, and will have an appreciation of the role of aerosols in climate change.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

For further information please contact Prof Jim Haywood, j.m.haywood@exeter.ac.uk

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