Scientist – National Center for Atmospheric Research

Scientist National Center for Atmospheric Research

Located in Boulder, Colorado, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is one of the world’s premier scientific institutions, with an internationally recognized staff and research program dedicated to advancing knowledge, providing community-based resources, and building human capacity in the atmospheric and related sciences.

NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

If you are considering sending an application, make sure to hit the apply button below after reading through the entire description.

Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory (CGD) is part of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Its mission is to : (1) discover the key processes in each component of the Earth’s climate system and the interactions among them (2) represent this understanding in models and thereby provide a basis for prediction of climate;

and (3) apply this understanding and these models to scientific problems of societal relevance. We fulfill our mission through a strong record of achievement in scientific research, community modeling and data set development.

NCAR’s Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) is a leader in supercomputing and data services necessary for the advancement of atmospheric and geospace science.

CISL’s mission is to remain a leader at the forefront of ensuring that research universities, NCAR, and the larger geosciences community have access to the computational resources they need for their research.

CISL’s portfolio also includes computational science research targeted at atmospheric sciences, in an interdisciplinary manner that incorporates computer science, mathematics, statistics, and software engineering.

What You Will Do

This is a joint position between CGD and CISL and will be filled at either the Scientist 1, 2 or 3 level, depending on the skills and experience of the selected candidate.

Additional job responsibilities (outlined below) will be assigned if the candidate is hired at the higher levels.

This position carries out scientific research primarily on coupled data assimilation in support of the evolving climate prediction efforts in the Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory.

The person works as part of a team, but leads many aspects of coupled data assimilation, as well as contributes to related prediction and predictability analysis involving components of the Earth System.

Provides high or expert level scientific, technical, and analysis knowledge. The position will work on advancing our data assimilation framework within the Community Earth System Model and Data Assimilation Research Testbed (CESM + DART) by implementing new capabilities and assessing their impacts on data assimilation products.

The incumbent will also work on providing coupled model diagnostics to identify the origin of coupled model biases using data assimilation.

This position will provide leadership and supervision to a software engineer dedicated to the development of coupled data assimilation.

The incumbent will utilize and develop the necessary graphics and analysis tools.

Expectations include to participate in or be lead (Scientist 2-3) on proposals, particularly in support of this project; to lead reports and peer-reviewed papers;

and to present results on a regular basis.

Due to the collaborative nature of this work, the person will interact with the researchers in the DART group and with developers of CESM component models, such as the Modular Ocean Model version 6 (MOM6) developers at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), as well as design, conduct, and analyze joint numerical data assimilation experiments.

Although broad priorities will be determined in consultation with the NCAR investigators of the overall effort, the person is expected to operate with a high degree of independence, leading day-to-day activities of the project’s data assimilation efforts.

Responsibilities include :

Serves as an expert in coupled data assimilation

• Leads and conducts scientific research to :
• advance data assimilation capabilities,
• improve climate prediction by implementing new features, improving existing methods, and assessing their impacts on the results, and
• improve the fidelity of CESM and its component models.
• Manages development timetable and designs and implements methods / strategies for advancing toward a fully-coupled data assimilation framework.
• Leads, designs and conducts all the associated sensitivity experiments.

Leads the design and analysis of the data assimilation experiments

• Designs and develops new analysis tools, including advanced statistical methods.
• Assesses and revises the research plan as needed.
• Assists with the coupled prediction simulations as needed.
• Contributes to the analysis of prediction and predictability simulations.
• Provides supervision to Software Engineer developer.

Leads and participates in the writing of scientific journal articles and formal reports, documenting findings

• Presents results at relevant meetings.
• Leads and participates in proposal writing.

Documents experimental and diagnostics procedures

• Organizes and maintains a comprehensive database of simulation output and analysis.
• Makes this information available to collaborators.

Lead contact for the broader research community on ocean data assimilation, particularly the CESM + DART framework

Interacts with internal and external collaborators.

What You Need (Minimum Requirements)

Education and Experience Required for all Levels :

Ph.D. in oceanic, atmospheric, earth sciences, mathematics, or physical sciences.

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