CIRES​/NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Postdoctoral Associate in Carbon Cycle Modeling

The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder and the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) in Boulder, Colorado invite applications for a Postdoctoral Associate position focused on atmospheric data quality control, analysis, and inverse modeling of the carbon budget of the Congo Basin–the second-largest tropical forest in the world. Funding for this position is provided through the Schmidt Sciences Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle ( VICC ) project Congo Basin Carbon Flux Experiment (Congo-FLEX), which aims to quantify the carbon budget of the Congo Basin tropical forest using top-down and bottom-up methods.

The successful candidate will quantify and interpret carbon fluxes constrained by new aircraft vertical profile observations already being collected as part of the project, primarily using a regional inverse modeling framework. The individual hired in this role will adapt existing in-house regional inverse modeling tools to the Congo Basin domain, with a particular focus on evaluation of models’ ability to accurately represent transport processes in tropical Africa and the subsequent impact on resulting carbon-dioxide flux estimates.

They will also compare their top-down results with detailed bottom-up inventories being developed for the project to investigate potential top-down/bottom-up discrepancies and attribute flux patterns and trends to specific sectors and processes.

CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

CIRES is an internationally recognized leader in innovative environmental science and research and is located at the University of Colorado Boulder. At CIRES, more than 900 environmental science professionals work to understand the dynamic Earth system, including people’s relationship with the planet. CIRES has partnered with NOAA since 1967, and our areas of expertise include weather and climate, changes at Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, solid Earth sciences, and more.

Our vision is to be instrumental in ensuring a sustainable future environment by advancing scientific and societal understanding of the Earth system.

The Global Monitoring Laboratory ( GML ) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducts research that addresses three major climate challenges: greenhouse gas emissions and carbon cycle feedbacks; changes in clouds, aerosols, and surface radiation; and recovery of stratospheric ozone. NOAA GML operates the Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, an international effort to measure the global abundances, distributions, and trends of atmospheric trace gases from fixed sites and mobile platforms, including aircraft, ships, and balloons.

GML also develops global and regional modeling systems to track sources and sinks of multiple greenhouse gases.

• Use data analysis techniques including regional inverse modeling to estimate and interpret observationally-constrained net carbon flux estimates, and their uncertainties, for the Congo Basin (65%). This will involve:
• Analyze atmospheric vertical profile and horizontal transect data of CO2, CO, and H2O, including data quality control.
• Adapt the existing Carbon Tracker-Lagrange regional inverse modeling framework to the Congo basin domain.
• Conduct sensitivity tests of model parameter selection and…