Offre CDD IR équipe ARA: CO2, Greenhouse Gases And Fire: Monitoring From Space

Scientific context

There is mounting evidence of the importance of biomass burning in climate and carbon cycle. Fire global carbon emissions are of the same order as fossil fuel emissions, and fires drive much of the interannual variation in most of the greenhouse carbon gases. To date, a lack of data has imposed a severe limit on the ability to produce reliable models of fire at global scales, especially because parameterizing terms to describe interannual variation requires long-term data covering multiple years.

The successful applicant will join the LMD/ARA team in its effort to monitor fire activities and emissions from space through the interpretation of infrared observations in terms of CO2 and related greenhouse gases. Use will be made of more than two decades of observation from the infrared sounders TOVS launched onboard the NOAA polar satellites since 1978, and from the new hyperspectral instrument IASI, lauched onboard the European MetOp platform in October 2006. This project takes place within the European Science Initiative of Microsoft Research Cambridge, and participates to the IASI CNES mission.

The work will consist in the interpretation of space observations using direct and inverse radiative transfer modelling. Use will be made of several computing codes: radiative transfer codes, neural networks estimation softwares, data analysis tools. The work will also include validation of the results with auxiliary data (measurements made at the surface or by aircraft, or balloon).

The team

The ARA team has an international leading expertise in the study of climate processes and trends using observation from spaceborne instruments, which heavily relies on the use of computing, signal processing and managing of high amount of data. The team comprises 16 researchers and engineers. LMD is a CNRS/University laboratory comprising 150 researchers engineers and technicians.

Computing facilities

• Several thousands of hours on the super-computers of CNRS IDRIS computing center.
• ARA cluster (12 nodes)
• IPSL ClimServ computing center (46 nodes)
• Online archive of several Tb.

Position requirements

• Good knowledge of Fortran 77/90 or C/C++ languages.
• Knowledge of UNIX and Linux environments (scripts, shell).
• Applicants should be fluent in oral and written English (or French).
• This job is offered with no restriction on age, sex nor nationality, in accordance with French law.

Applications, including a resume, a list of publications, and a short letter of motivation, should be sent to:

Dr. Cyril Crevoisier, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
+33 (0)1 69 33 51 35
cyril.crevoisier@lmd.polytechnique.fr  
http://www.lmd.polytechnique.fr/~crevoisi