PhD in Understanding Clouds-Circulation Coupling for Climate Feedbacks using Satellite Observations

Are you fascinated by clouds, climate and their governing physics? Do satellite observations of these climate features sound exciting? Then this PhD position might be for you!

PhD in Understanding Clouds-Circulation Coupling for Climate Feedbacks using Satellite Observations

Job description

Motivation:
Large uncertainties remain in projections of how Earth's climate will respond to the ongoing anthropogenic warming. A substantial part of these uncertainties come from a poor understanding of shallow cumulus clouds—small, fair-weather clouds that play a major role in regulating Earth’s energy balance. Recent research has highlighted features such as circulations and rain as key processes that can help better understand these clouds. Improving our understanding of these processes will help reduce cloud-feedback estimates, and therefore reduce uncertainty in climate projections.

Research Theme:
Building on well-posed hypotheses from recent modelling studies, an observational investigation of the clouds-circulation coupling is warranted. This investigation is the heart of this PhD position and aims to identify processes that are missing or poorly represented in current climate models and theory. You will work with data from multiple satellites measuring clouds, rain and the atmospheric state, and also use model outputs to help fill the gaps. Your research goal is to advance current theories of how clouds and circulations interact over the tropical oceans. Within the thematic scope and objectives outlined above, you will have considerable freedom to explore which methods to apply and to come up with research questions that pique your curiousity. This position therefore provides ample space for you to bring creativity and intellectual ownership, with guidance from the supervisory team to help translate your ideas into meaningful research contributions.

In addition to your core PhD research, you will contribute to a department field campaign focused on low clouds. This includes drone-based and remote-sensing observations during 2 field campaigns. The total time commitment for this will be at the most three months. These hands-on field experiences provide valuable perspective on atmospheric processes and deepen appreciation for the challenges and effort involved in collecting high-quality observations.

Working style and research environment:
You will join the Geoscience & Remote Sensing department (GRS) working closely with fellow PhD researchers, postdocs, and professors in an open and collaborative environment, where you will receive full support and training to grow in your career. This project is a collaboration between TU Delft and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), offering the chance to work with leading experts in clouds and climate science. Regular seminars, meetings and conferences bring together a vibrant community of cloud researchers and frequently spring up ideas for collaboration. Your PhD research will thus not be in isolation, but in constant conversation with ongoing research investigations.

Job requirements

• A master’s degree in Physics, Earth, Atmospheric, or Climate Science, or clear evidence that it will be obtained soon (e.g. thesis submitted).
• Experience in working with large data sets; familiarity with NetCDF and/or Zarr is a plus.
• Strong teamwork and communication skills.
• Good command of written and spoken English.
• Experience in working with remote-sensing instruments and/or data is an advantage.

Conditions of employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts: an initial 1.5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months, followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2.5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

This project is a collaboration between TU Delft and Wageningen University & Research (WUR).