Doctoral researcher assessing scale questions in land-atmosphere modeling (m/f/x) at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

The unit of Physical Geography and Earth System Interactions at LMU’s Department of Geography is looking for a part time (75%) doctoral researcher starting April 2024 or sooner. The candidate will be part of the Land-Atmosphere Feedback Initiative (LAFI, see above), a new Research Unit funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). At LMU scale interactions with the overall aim to substantially improve our understanding of land-atmosphere exchange concerning the question how relevant it is to resolve land-surface heterogeneity that is not resolved in global Earth system models will be addressed, despite these models’ application to rather small-scale problems like impacts of land-use decisions on regional climate. High-resolution large-eddy modeling will be drawn with ICON to bridge these scales.

The doctoral researcher will

• evaluate and improve an advanved land surface model in atmospheric simulations at hectometer scale,
• run and evaluate this model for Central European sites, in collaboration with observational partners and complementary land modeling approaches in LAFI, and test various ways of representing land heterogeneity,
• take a leading role in the development of scientific publications on water, energy and carbon fluxes comparing large-eddy and Earth system model output.

Required qualifications comprise:

• a MSc in a natural or physical science subject (geography, meteorology, physics or similar),
• good programming skills (such as fortran, python),
• excellent communication skills in English (our working language),
• Training or experience in atmosphere, vegetation or climate modeling is advantageous, but not essential.

Deadline for application is February 28, 2024.

Please send an application outlining your fit for the position (including a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, copies of scientific degrees, and the names and contact information of two references) by e-mail (one PDF-attachment with max. 5MB only including all documents) with subject “LAFI-2024” to climate.jobs@geographie.uni-muenchen.de.
For further information please contact Prof. Dr. Julia Pongratz (julia.pongratz@lmu.de) or Prof. Dr. Mirjana Sakradzija (m.sakradzija@lmu.de).

Read the full job announcement.