California fault processes constrained InSAR andGPS observations

About the NASA Postdoctoral Program

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly‑talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA‑affiliated research institute. These one‑to‑three‑year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Throughout the plate boundary zone, earthquakes respond to each other, transient stresses modulate earthquake occurrence, and tectonic and non‑tectonic (e.g., anthropogenic) processes can interact to produce non‑steady‑state behaviors in the fault and lithosphere system. Spaceborne surface deformation measurements are the primary observations to constrain these complex interactions. Data acquisitions from multiple satellite SAR sensors (e.g., ERS, Envisat, ALOS‑1/2, Radarsat, TerrasAR‑X, Cosmo‑Sky Med, Sentinel‑1A/B) and airborne SAR (e.g., NASA UAVSAR) now allow us to image time‑variable deformation with fine spatial resolution over a range of different time scales.

A postdoc is sought to relate the spatiotemporal variation of surface deformation from a comprehensive analysis of satellite and airborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and GPS to infer the slip and mechanical variations of faults, earthquake and anthropogenic sources, landslide processes, and the mechanics and rheology of the lithosphere along the plate boundary zone in California. The candidate will combine improved spatiotemporal deformation maps derived from satellite and airborne InSAR and GPS time series with advanced numerical modeling techniques to better constrain fault slip/locking, source parameters of solid‑Earth dynamic events, local stress/strain changes due to tectonic and non‑tectonic perturbations, and to constrain models of lithosphere rheology with the ultimate goal of an improved understanding of lithospheric processes and earthquake‑cycle dynamics.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California

• Degree
  :
  Doctoral Degree.
• Eligible applicants: 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.
• Applicants from designated countries are not accepted unless they are Legal Permanent Residents (LPR) of the United States.

Questions about this opportunity? Please email npp
Point of Contact:
Mikeala