Research Intern (Meta-Modelling of Atmospheric Trace Gas Retrieval Algorithms)

About this job

We are currently looking for a Research Intern to join the team in Delft to create Meta-Models of Atmospheric Trace Gas Retrieval Algorithms to start in September 2025.

We welcome interns at every stage of their academic journey! Whether you're a bachelor's student looking to gain hands-on experience, a master's student seeking an internship, or you're ready to dive into your master’s thesis — we’ve got opportunities for you. We are flexible with the duration of the internship as long as it is longer than 3 months. Please specify which is your case on your motivation letter.

Are you ready to make an impact within S[&T]? We’re thrilled to help talented students reach their maximum potential. If you’d like to contribute to a safer life on Earth through your internship, we’ll be happy to guide you along the way to improve algorithms that will measure the gases on the atmosphere.

Atmospheric scientists develop retrieval algorithms to detect the level of atmospheric trace gasses, such as CO and CH4, based on satellite instrument data. These detection algorithms are complex and often computationally expensive. For many of these algorithms, there is still research to do investigating whether improvements can be made to the original algorithm utilising (machine learning) models.

As a Research Intern, your goal is to improve upon computational performance or efficiency, with a minimal trade-off in accuracy.

To support this, the data measured by the Tropomi instrument on Sentinel-5p and some of the current widely used models used by large European institutes such as ESA, will be used as a ground truth. In August 2025, the new Sentinel-5 instruments will be launched on the second-generation satellites. These new instruments provide more detailed data, and this emphasizes the need for improved detection algorithms such that end users can be provided with high quality measurements at a faster pace.

Main responsibilities

• You’ll contribute to climate research by researching to what extent meta-modelling techniques can be used to improve the performance of atmospheric trace gas retrieval algorithms.

Requirements

You will be the perfect match if you are:

• Excited to dive into a cutting-edge topic for your master’s thesis.
• Studying Computer Science or Aerospace (or a related field).
• Some knowledge on Machine Learning models.
• Passionate about satellite data and the fusion of Space & Computer Science.
• Enrolled in a bachelor's or master’s program for the entire internship duration.
• Preferably already based in the Netherlands.
• Fluent in English.
• Motivated, eager to learn, and ready to make an impact.

If you would like to be our next Research Intern, please upload your CV and a motivation letter.

Our story

At S[&T] we contribute to a safer life on earth by translating space data into valuable and actionable insights. We oversee data from instruments to application, and apply our expertise within our software frameworks, information products and consultancy.

Our society relies on space and scientific instruments for climate change monitoring, navigation, defence and national security, and other crucial services we all use in our daily lives. These instruments produce an enormous quantity of complex data, and our goal is to unlock its value.

We have more than 20 years of experience working on instrument calibration, the creation of data quality monitoring tools, the development of real-time data processing frameworks, and the development of application-specific algorithms. With this, we help organisations, governments and industries to strengthen their information position and thereby improve their decision making. We focus on the following domains: Space & Science, Defence & Security, Environment & Sustainability, and High-Tech Consulting.