Hurricane research: This work is focused on observations from microwave atmospheric sounders deployed on aircraft and satellites. Study topics range from developing new methodologies and algorithms to infer information about both the thermodynamic structure and the microphysics of tropical convection to using these tools to gain understanding of cyclogenesis and hurricane intensification and weakening. Much of this work revolves around hurricane field campaigns and analysis of the data obtained there. The algorithm work is focused on developing new techniques to infer reflectivity and derive precipitation estimates and microphysical parameters from sounder observations. This will enable wide-ranging studies of tropical cyclones using observations from a large number of current and future satellite sounders. The successful candidate will be familiar with current research in tropical convection and will have experience in analyzing large data sets.
Satellite mission development: This work is focused on preparing for the “PATH” mission, one of the NASA “decadal survey” missions. PATH will place an AMSU-equivalent microwave sounder in geostationary orbit and is focused on hurricane and hydrologic-cycle applications, both in a weather and a climate context. The PATH mission is made possible with GeoSTAR, a breakthrough synthetic-aperture radiometer being developed at JPL. This work revolves around simulation studies to determine the expected impact of the PATH observations and developing science methodologies, algorithms and applications. A particular area of interest is to determine the most effective use of such observations in weather and climate models and investigate how coarse-resolution observations are most effectively used with high-resolution models. The successful candidate will be familiar with modeling, simulations, methods used in Operational System Simulation Experiments (OSSE), and current research in fields relevant to PATH.
Microwave sounding science: This work is focused on the use of microwave sounding observations in general atmospheric and climate research. Past, current and future sensors will be studied. Particular areas of interest is the development of climatologies from microwave sounders, and the study of cloudy weather and climate regimes that are poorly sampled with other sensors, such as infrared sounders. With the availability of satellite and aircraft data and model simulations, spatial scale issues can be studied in relation to probability distribution functions of thermodynamic variables and cloud parameters. In addition to general atmospheric research, this work is applicable to the development of future satellite missions, including the upcoming NPP mission being developed by NASA in collaboration with other agencies. A key question is whether the data obtained from NPP weather sensors, which includes a microwave sounder, can be used to support climate research. This work is intended to address that question. The successful candidate will be familiar with current research in atmospheric science and should be familiar with the use of data from microwave or infrared sounders. Knowledge of satellite systems and sensors is a plus.
Candidates should have a recent Ph.D. in atmospheric research or remote sensing and should have a strong background in data analysis.
Please send a letter describing your research interests, a curriculum vitae, and a list of three references (with telephone numbers and postal and email addresses) to Bjorn Lambrigtsen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 169-237, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099 USA; Tel: +1-818-354-8932; E-mail: bjorn.h.lambrigtsen@jpl.nasa.gov.
Rev. 6/30/09
