1.5-year (renewable) post-doctoral position at LSCE: assimilation of CO2 satellite images for the atmospheric inversion of CO2 natural fluxes in Amazonia

Offres (CDI, CDD, stage, thèse, post doc, ...)

Several concepts of satellite spectro-imagery for CO2 atmospheric concentrations are presently investigated by space agencies and research laboratories. In principle, the processing of CO2 images from satellites has more potential than data from current satellite sounders for the monitoring of the natural and anthropogenic surface CO2 fluxes both at high resolution and at large scales. The GeoCARB geostationary mission, which has recently been selected by NASA as an Earth Venture mission, will provide satellite images of CO2 at relatively high spatial resolution (typically 5 km) over areas of several thousands of km in tropical to mid-latitude North and South America. Its atmospheric CO2 concentration measurements will be used to quantify the surface fluxes based on atmospheric transport modelling and statistical atmospheric inversion techniques. The traditional atmospheric inversion systems have been mostly developed to assimilate sparse ground based or satellite measurements and may not be effective at capturing structured and informative patterns in the images. They should therefore evolve to optimize the exploitation of the CO2 images such as those from GeoCARB.

The successful candidate will support the development of new inversion concepts for the optimal processing of the GeoCARB images. Her/his inversion activities will focus on the monitoring of the CO2 natural fluxes in Amazonia. She/he will:

implement new inversion techniques in the regional inversion system that has been developed at LSCE for the monitoring of the natural fluxes in South America
investigate, through experiments with pseudo data, the improvements enabled by these new inversion techniques and the potential of the GeoCARB mission for the monitoring of the natural fluxes
investigate the potential complementarity of GeoCARB with satellite sounders like the MicroCARB mission, which is planned by CNES.

The successful candidate will work full time at LSCE (LSCE, CEA-Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif sur Yvette cedex, France) with the team dedicated to inverse modelling. She/he will also interact with the international scientific team of the GeoCARB mission, and in particular with the University of Oklahoma which leads this mission. Finally, she/he will interact with the European institutes collaborating with LSCE on the topic of the satellite monitoring of GHG fluxes.

She/he should have a PhD with experience and knowledge in data assimilation, in atmospheric modelling or more generally in modelling tools and statistics. She/he must be autonomous and able to work with computing tools such as Fortran and/or python, and with complex model codes in UNIX environment. She/he should also have good communication skills.

The salary will be commensurate with experience, and will include full health care and retirement pension benefits. Applications should include a CV and a cover letter, and if possible the names of two reference persons. They should be sent to Grégoire Broquet (gregoire.broquet@lsce.ipsl.fr) and Frédéric Chevallier (frederic.chevallier@lsce.ipsl.fr). The applications should be sent, and the position will start, as soon as possible.

-- 
Grégoire Broquet <gregoire.broquet@lsce.ipsl.fr>
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement 
L'Orme des Merisiers, Bat 701, Point courrier 129
91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
Tel: +33 (0) 1 6908 8687 / Fax: +33 (0) 1 6908 7716

A. Mazaud, dépêche du 15/02/2018