Instability and dissipation of orographic gravity waves in the atmosphere and its representation in chemistry-climate models

Funded PhD position with contract is opening at the Department of Atmospheric Physics at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic aiming at dynamics of gravity waves and their representation in chemistry-climate models.

Reference Code for the application: DCU25–2

Euraxess: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/316062

Description: GWs and turbulence are unresolved in climate models and are responsible for pronounced biases connected with the model representation of atmospheric dynamics, composition and transport. The candidate is assumed to combine theory, numerical simulations and potentially observations from specialized observational campaigns to formulate hypotheses on relations connecting wave parameters with the background and the type of instability to the intensity of a resulting turbulent overturning and mixing. These relationships will be tested using dedicated model simulations of the GW dissipation (with an emphasis on orographic GWs). The work will improve our understanding of GW instabilities, dissipation and the induced turbulent mixing and will transfer this knowledge towards representation of these mechanism in state-of-the-science atmospheric models. The results will pave the way for modifications of current GW parameterization schemes and their coupling with other sub-models, thereby improving the known biases and ultimately improving the quality of future climate change projections.

The successful candidate will join the Gravity Wave (GW) research group funded by the Czech Science Foundation Junior Star project 23–04921M „Unravelling climate impacts of atmospheric internal gravity waves“ and contribute to the development of an orographic gravity wave parameterization scheme for climate models. The Ph.D. study of the candidates will be fully funded, partly from the mentioned project and partly as a regular monthly stipendium, together making about net 1500 EUR/month income (the stipendium is gradually increasing during the study – for details about the phd studies at the department of atmospheric physics, please visit: https://www.mff.cuni.cz/en/physicsphd/f8/program-overview

Requirements:

• Master-of-Science-equivalent degree in meteorology and/or environmental physics with fulfilled courses of atmospheric chemistry and physics.
• The candidate should have good to very good experience in Unix / Linux scripting and programming skills in Python, SQL or Fortran.
• Strong communication in English language (spoken and written)
• Willingness to interact with an interdisciplinary science community
• A creative mind-set for scientific research
• Previous experiences in investigation of atmospheric gravity waves including their model representation and effects are great asset.

Application: Please send your application by March 31, 2025 to kfa@matfyz.cuni.cz

Please include:

• Academic CV and a pdf of your diplomas including (link to the) the diploma thesis
• List of course topics related to meteorology, air quality, climate modelling or atmospheric physics
• Specification of programming and language skills
• List of publications (if any)
• List of research projects (if any)
• Statement of research interests and career goals, indicating why you are interested in the position
• List of at least two references: names, phone numbers, and email

After the selection of the candidate (during April) and the approval of the supervisor of the phd project, an official application has to be submitted to the faculty (to be specified later with the selected candidate).

Information on deadlines, how to apply and what is required in general can be found at Application.

Further information about our department can be found here.