Megacity COMonitoring

Overview

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers one‑to‑three‑year fellowships to highly‑talented scientists to conduct research at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or an affiliated research institute. The fellowships advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

This project focuses on long‑term monitoring of urban CO2 and CH4 concentrations in the Los Angeles megacity to attribute anthropogenic CO2 emissions accurately. By integrating high‑resolution observations with top‑down and bottom‑up inventories, the study aims to generate a space‑time resolved carbon inventory, evaluate new sensing technologies, and develop protocols that can be extended to other megacities worldwide.

• Monitor atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations over Los Angeles with precision capable of detecting 10% or more emission changes over five years, determined with 95% confidence.
• Produce an annual carbon inventory for the Los Angeles domain, incorporating major emission sectors to support policy assessments.
• Provide a flexible testbed for evaluating new in‑situ and remote sensing measurement technologies relevant to carbon monitoring in a megacity environment.
• Develop methods and protocols that enable adaptation of the Los Angeles framework to additional cities within California, the United States, and internationally.

Successful candidates will possess expertise in atmospheric physics and chemistry, carbon cycle science, airborne instrumentation, atmospheric remote sensing, regional CO2 flux inversion, or an equivalent field. They will:

• Collaborate with the Megacity CO2 Monitoring Team and investigators from Paris and other megacities.
• Install, operate, calibrate, validate, and analyze CO2, CH4, and other trace gas measurements in the LA megacity.
• Ingest observational data into high‑resolution inversion models (WRF, STILT, HYSPLIT, FELXPART, etc.) to assess LA carbon fluxes.
• Design and validate space‑based megacity monitoring solutions using observation system simulation experiments (OSSEs).
• Incorporate satellite remote sensing data into megacity CO2 emission monitoring and develop protocols for reconciling top‑down and bottom‑up estimates.
• Interface with decision makers to evaluate the impact of urban emission reduction policies.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Earth Science

• Doctoral degree.

• U.S. Citizens;
• U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR);
• Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J‑1 visa status;
• Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with
  1) a valid EAD card and
  2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status.