a Research Assistant position, on Remote sensing of tree cover change in Mali (1 year, 50%)
The position will be part of the team of Prof. Patrick Meyfroidt at UCLouvain. Contracts will be based on Belgian regulations, depending on prior research experience, and will include the benefits of the Belgian social security such as health insurance. This offer is also published on Euraxess: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/638070
This position is for one year, at 50%. This position will contribute to a research project funded by the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) appointed by CGIAR, in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) in Germany, UC Santa Barbara (USA), and ICRISAT-Mali. The project is coordinated by Dr. Dilini Abeygunawardane at IAMO.
Objectives: To assess the impacts of agricultural intensification interventions on forest and tree cover in and out of farmland in Mali.
Research description:
The Research Assistant will be in charge of producing time series of forest and tree cover maps in the study area (Sikasso region in Mali), based on remote sensing data (Sentinel 2, Landsat), as well as: contributing to the scientific organization of fieldwork ground truthing campaigns, the interactions with project’s partners, the reporting of the project, writing and communication of the outputs, and administrative tasks.
Profiles required:
A researcher holding a Master degree or equivalent experience in geography, geomatics, geoprocessing or related domains, with strong skills in remote sensing.
Several skills can constitute strong assets for these positions:
- Remote sensing skills in particular in Google Earth Engine
- Experience with the context of Sahelian region (in terms of vegetation, agriculture, remote sensing)
- Data processing and programming skills in R or Python.
- Spatial analyses and GIS
The candidate should demonstrate a solid command of the English language.
Candidates should submit (i) a CV and (ii) a cover letter detailing qualifications and research interests, and, (iii) when appropriate, names and contacts of up to three referees to: Prof. Patrick Meyfroidt - patrick.meyfroidt@uclouvain.be
The review of applications will start on June 1, 2021.
Starting date: As soon as possible.
Four-year PhD position on the predictability of extremes of Arctic sea ice reduction with rare event simulation methods available at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
The Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (www.uclouvain.be/teclim) of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, is looking for a PhD student for 4 years to work on the predictability of extreme Arctic sea ice reduction using rare event simulation methods.
Due to climate change, sea ice cover and sea ice volume in the Arctic have been decreasing since at least the late 70s. On top of this negative trend, internal variability due to a range of physical processes and feedbacks contributes substantially to the year to year variations of the annual minimum of sea ice. A better understanding of the processes and conditions that favour extreme summer Arctic sea ice reduction is of crucial importance to improve the seasonal prediction of extreme deviations from the trend line, such as observed in 2007 and 2012, and to quantify the risk of such events under different climate change scenarios.
In this PhD project we will study extremes of Arctic sea ice reduction in numerical climate models using rare event algorithms. A crucial problem in studying extreme events is that they are by definition rare, and it is extremely hard to sample a sufficient number of them to gather a robust statistics in standard numerical simulations. Rare event algorithms are computational techniques recently introduced to climate science, that allow to guide an ensemble simulation with a numerical model to oversample rare dynamical trajectories leading to extreme events of interest. This allows to increase by orders of magnitude the number of extreme events available in the simulations, thus allowing to perform robust statistical and dynamical studies, and to generate ultra-rare high-impact events that would be impossible to study otherwise.
The student will study the physical drivers and predictability of Arctic sea ice reduction performing numerical simulations with climate models of different complexity, coupled to rare event algorithms already successfully applied to extreme heatwaves and tropical cyclones. In a first phase the student will work with the intermediate complexity climate model Plasim on methodological aspects, to define the best strategies to use rare event algorithms for this problem. The numerical work will be complemented by the development of data-based statistical models for the evolution of the Arctic sea ice. The second phase of the project will be geared towards applications, as the student will apply the developed methodology to simulations with the EC-Earth General Circulation Model (www.ec-earth.org), which includes the Sea Ice Integrated Initiative sea ice model (SI3), largely based on the Louvain-la-Neuve sea ice model (LIM).
The PhD position is for 4 years, starting on October 1st, 2021, with a net monthly salary of about 2064 EUR and full coverage in terms of medical and social insurances. The student will be supervised by Profs Francesco Ragone and François Massonnet. The work will be conducted in collaboration with scientists from the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI, Belgium), the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC, Italy), and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS-Lyon, France).
We are looking for candidates with a Master degree in physics, atmospheric/oceanographic sciences, mathematics or engineering. Candidates should have robust mathematical and statistical skills, as well as an interest in working with numerical climate models and innovative computational methods.
Applicants should send (i) a statement of interest, (ii) a complete CV and (iii) the names and contacts of two references to Prof Francesco Ragone (francesco.ragone@uclouvain.be). The deadline for the submission of the applications is June 13th, 2021.