[Met-jobs] Postdoctoral position in biogeochemistry and salinity remote sensing at LOCEAN/IPSL

[Jacqueline Boutin <jb@locean-ipsl.upmc.fr>]

The Laboratoire d’Océanographie et du Climat – Expérimentation et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN)/ Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) invites applications for a 15 months, possibly renewable, postdoctoral position. The position is opened in the frame of the EU FP7 Carbochange (carbochange.b.uib.no) and of the European Space Agency SMOS+SOS (www.smos-sos.org) projects. The successful candidate will join a LOCEAN team which has a lead expertise in salinity remote sensing and air-sea CO₂ fluxes.

 

The research project aims at demonstrating the contribution of new satellite sea surface salinity, SSS, to other existing remotely sensed products  (sea surface temperature, ocean colour, altimetry) for improving regional air-sea CO₂ fluxes estimates.

The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission launched in november 2009 has demonstrated the capability of the satellite L-band radiometry to sense SSS. Almost 4 years of SMOS SSS data are now available. The Aquarius satellite mission delivers SSS since more than 2 years. At 10 days-100x100km² scale, the precision of the SMOS and Aquarius SSS is on the order of 0.2-0.3 in tropical and subtropical regions.

The estimate of the air-sea CO₂ flux at regional scale, based on in situ measurements, is challenging due to the sparse measurements of the CO₂ partial pressure at the ocean surface, pCO₂. Hence the reliability of the estimated fluxes strongly relies on the methods used to extrapolate the in-situ pCO₂ measurements. Satellite sea surface temperature and chlorophyll have been widely used in the past in such methods, as they contain information about physical and biological processes driving pCO₂ variability. On another hand, several studies have shown that SSS brings complementary information, that could, in particular, help to understand and identify the processes which control the  pCO₂ signatures associated with various water masses and biogeochemical provinces. In this project, we propose to use the satellite SSS data, in conjunction with in situ pCO2 (in particular but not exclusively the ones available in the SOCAT data base), in regions well and accurately sampled by SMOS and by ship pCO₂, for 1) interpreting the observed pCO₂ variability, 2) developing new methodology for extrapolating pCO₂ and 3) demonstrating the potential of new satellite SSS at improving air-sea CO₂ flux estimates at regional scale.

 

Applicants should have a background in ocean biogeochemistry, and preferentially in ocean remote sensing. They should have significant experience in data processing.

 

The position starts in January 2014 and is located at UPMC-PARIS 6 University. The net monthly salary is about 1900 euros per month, commensurate with experience. Applicants should submit a CV, a letter of interest and the names (email and telephone numbers) of three references to  J. Boutin (jb@locean-ipsl.upmc.fr; tel: 33 1 44 27 47 65).

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Jacqueline Boutin
LOCEAN
UPMC - Tour 45-55-5eme etage
Case 100
4, place Jussieu
75252 PARIS Cedex 05 - FRANCE
email: jb@locean-ipsl.upmc.fr
Tel: 33 (0)1 44 27 47 65 - Fax: 33 (0)1 44 27 38 05
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