Research scientist position on atmospheric variability and predictability – R2

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and is a hosting member of the PRACE European distributed supercomputing infrastructure. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 460 staff from 44 countries. Look at the BSC experience:

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Within the Earth Sciences Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-ES), led by Prof Francisco Doblas-Reyes, the climate prediction group, led by Dr Virginie Guemas, aims at developing a climate modelling and prediction capability for time scales ranging from a few weeks to a few decades into the future (sub-seasonal to decadal climate prediction) and from regional to global scales. This objective relies on expanding our understanding of the climate processes responsible for the predictable part of the climate variability through a deep analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of state-of-the-art climate forecast systems. We also compare it to the most up-to-date observational datasets, and on exploiting these detailed analyses to refine the representation of these climate processes in our climate forecast systems and their correct initialization. The group has a particular focus on the benefits of high-resolution global modelling. The group members use the EC-Earth European global climate model (http://www.ec-earth.org) for their developments and collaborate closely with all the members of the EC-Earth consortium. Positioned at the cutting-edge of climate modelling and prediction research, the members also have access to large multi-model databases from international initiatives (CMIP, NMME, etc.) for process analysis and understanding. Achieving the objectives benefit from the combination of a large variety of expertise on climate processes within our group from the stratosphere down to the deep ocean and from tropical to polar latitudes. Particular attention is paid to the career path of the group members, who are given gradually increasing responsibilities within the group and in the context of both national and international projects. Outstanding opportunities exist for establishing links with other international climate research institutions and, if interested, to participate in the tutoring and monitoring of early-career scientists.

This position requires participation in several projects funded by the European commission among which:

1. PRIMAVERA (https://www.primavera-h2020.eu/), which focuses on improving the climate model reliability through the use of ground-breaking resolutions, novel approaches to represent physical processes and their uncertainties, original sensitivity experiments to diagnose strengths and weaknesses of state-of-the-art climate models.

2. QA4Seas (Quality Assurance for Multi-model Seasonal Forecast Products), which aims at developing a strategy for the evaluation and quality control (EQC) of the multi-model seasonal forecasts provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) to respond to the needs identified among a wide range of stakeholders.

3. APPLICATE, which aims to develop an enhanced predictive capacity for weather and climate in the Arctic and beyond, and to determine the influence of Arctic climate change on Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, for the benefit of policy makers, businesses and society.

The successful applicant will focus on the representation of the large-scale atmospheric circulation based on clustering tools (weather regimes) and its interactions with the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans, the representation of precipitation and extreme events such as droughts, heat waves and floods with a special emphasis on Europe. Many of the analysis will rely on both analyses and sensitivity experiments. The assessment of the experiments will be based on the tools already developed by the group members and on the implementation of new process-based diagnostics to be included in these tools. The applicant will be involved in collaborative work with members of the other groups of the department and other partners within the EC-Earth consortium.

* PhD in atmospheric physics, fluid dynamics, applied mathematics or in a related discipline

* A demonstrated ability to develop experimental set ups that address specific climate modeling problems

* Extended knowledge of bash, R, cdo, nco and Python

* Knowledge of version control systems (git, svn, cvs…)

* Experience in handling large databases, and a minimum knowledge of NetCDF encoding

* Proven ability to prepare and submit manuscripts to peer-review journals

* Interest and capacity in participating in the writing in and, when possible, leading the preparation of research and computing proposals

* Experience in HPC and parallel computing (multi-threaded applications)

* Fluency in spoken and written English, while fluency in other European languages will be also valued

* Ability to work as an active and collaborative team member to help in the delivery of shared objectives and to efficiently communicate results

* Ability to work as part of a large, strongly-coordinated team and to continuously share both knowledge and tools is an essential aspect required

* The position will be located at BSC within the Earth Sciences Department

* Starting Date: ASAP

* Duration of the contract: 2 years extensions will be considered depending on performance and funds availability

* We offer a full-time contract, a good working environment, Tickets Restaurant, Language Courses, Training & Development Plan, flexible hours and a medical assurance

* Salary will depend on the qualifications and experience of the candidate

All applications must be applied in http://www.bsc.es/about-bsc/employment/vacancies/scientistocpred including:

1. A motivation letter.

2. A full CV including contact details.

3. Two reference contacts.

BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.