PhD Position on Calving of Ice Sheets

Over the last five years it has become clear that the evolution of ice sheets is strongly influenced by the interaction with the ocean. This is caused by basal melting below ice shelves and by the calving of ice at the front of tide water glaciers or ice shelves. We will do this with an ice sheet model (UFEMISM) which is adaptive in space and time. The model will be tested against field observations in Greenland and used for projections of the ice sheet and thereby sea level rise for the next centuries.

Your job

Your task will be to improve an existing ice sheet model (UFEMISM) with a calving algorithm and calving law and applying this to the Greenland ice sheet. UFEMISM is a relatively new ice model with a growing user community aiming to be part of coupled Earth System Models. As such you work as part of a small group of people working on several aspects aiming to improve the role of ice sheets in climate models. This is done in the international context of ice sheet model improvements.

15% of your time will be spend to assisting with classes for Bachelor's and Master's students in (climate) physics.

Your qualities

Beside very good modelling skills you have to appreciate the difficulty of measuring in the field and to use these sparse field data in a smart way to validate your model. You are driven, positive and collaborative and have:

• a Master's degree in Physics, Geophysics, Physical Oceanography, Meteorology or a related discipline;
• strong programming skills (Fortran, Python or similar);
• affinity with numerical model development;
• good reporting and presentation skills;
• an excellent level of written and spoken English;
• the ability to work independently, to critically assess own results and to cooperate within a wider research team;
• proven affinity with modelling of oceanographic or glaciological processes.

Our offer

• A position for 18 months, with - after good evaluation - an extension to a total of four years;
• a fulltime working week and a gross monthly salary between €2,901 and €3,707 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU);
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.