Deadline: Review of applications will begin on 15 June 2011
The Georges Lemaître Center for Earth and Climate Research of the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, invites applications for two postdoctoral fellowships:
1/ Understanding the causes of the increase in Antarctic sea ice extent over the last decades.
2/ Role of sea ice on the air-ice-ocean CO2 exchanges in the Southern Ocean
Both positions are initially for 24 months. Suitable candidates will possess a Ph.D. in climatology, oceanography, atmospheric science or a related discipline. An expertise in climate modelling would be appreciated.
Applications should include detailed curriculum vitae, a letter describing relevant experience and research interests, and two letters of recommendation.
Review of applications will begin June 15, 2011 and will continue until appropriate candidates are selected. The expected starting date is the 1st of October but can be discussed.
Candidacies and questions should be sent to
Hugues Goosse or Martin Vancoppenolle
Georges Lemaître Center for Earth and Climate Research
Earth and Life Insitute
2, chemin du Cyclotron
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Phone: +32-10-473298,
fax: +32-10-474722,
Web site: http://www.climate.be.
Description of the projects
1/ Understanding the causes of the increase in Antarctic sea ice extent over the last decades.
The goal of the project is to understand the causes of the recent increase in ice extent in the Southern Ocean using observations and model results. Model results will come from existing simulations performed with the ocean-sea-ice model NEMO-LIM driven by atmospheric reanalysis, from simulations with NEMO-LIM using data assimilation and from simulations performed with coupled climate models in the framework of the CMIP5 project (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5). As a first step, analysis will be performed on those available simulations in order to determine which are the most likely hypotheses to explain the recent changes in Antarctic ice extent. In a second step, those hypotheses will be tested in sensitivity experiments using the models available in the group, in particular the model NEMO-LIM
2/ Role of sea ice on the air-ice-ocean CO2 exchanges in the Southern Ocean
Sea ice is biogeochemically active, notably via dynamic CO2 fluxes driven by the sea ice phase equilibrium, carbonate chemistry and ice biology. The interactive sea ice CO2 fluxes are not taken into account in current estimates of the global ocean CO2 uptake that mitigates climate change. In this project, the aim is to understand CO2 fluxes through sea ice, their implications for the regional upper ocean CO2 budget in the polar oceans, and finally to evaluate the consequences at large scale. Sea ice pCO2 dynamics will be simulated first through the implementation of carbonate chemistry into a 1D bio-physical sea ice model (LIM1D) which includes gas exchange equations. Model results will be compared to observation time series to identify the key processes driving the seasonality of CO2. Then, the impact of sea ice on the regional CO2 budget from the pycnocline to the atmosphere will be estimated. In order to implement it in the large-scale ocean-model NEMO-LIM, the sea ice CO2 dynamics will be simplified. The resulting new version of the model will be used to evaluate the significance of the polar oceans on total ocean CO2 uptake.
NSF has recently released a new solicitation for proposals for Research Coordination Networks (RCN) that focuses on the new investment area of Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES). In addition to the regular RCN proposals, the Office of Polar Program's Arctic Science Division and Antarctic Science Division are interested in polar research coordination networks that have a SEES focus.
The full RCN solicitation can be accessed at www.nsf.gov/pubs/2011/nsf11531/nsf11531.htm?org=NSF
Deadline for RCN SEES-track proposals is May 24, 2011.
If you have questions concerning the RCN-SEES solicitation for polar researchers, please contact the following cognizant program officers:
Anna Kerttula de Echave, Program Director Arctic Social Sciences
Erica Key, Program Director for Arctic System Science
Roberta Marinelli, Program Director for Antarctic Organisms & Ecosystems
Buck Sanford, Program Director for the Arctic Observing Network
For more information about the new SEES investment area please go to the NSF website www.nsf.gov/sees/
See also the SEES FAQs: www.nsf.gov/pubs/2011/nsf11039/nsf11039.jsp?org=NSF
and the January 2011 Dear Colleague Letter for SEES: www.nsf.gov/pubs/2011/nsf11022/nsf11022.jsp?org=NSF
Deadline for applications: April 22nd, 2011
To assist us in the implementation of the project, AntaBIF seeks an enthusiastic scientist to coordinate the construction of a web-based Antarctic biodiversity data portal.
Interested persons should send their application (in English, plus CV) to the project promoter, Hendrik Segers (hendrik.segers@naturalsciences.be), with CC: to Bruno Danis (bruno.danis@naturalsciences.be) before April 22nd, 2011;
The selection of candidates will take place during the first half of May 2011.
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