4 PhD positions in the field of paleoclimate dynamics
Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Bremerhaven, Germany
Closing date: 30 August 2024
The Paleoclimate Dynamics Group, part of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany, is currently offering 4 exciting new PhD positions.
Position #1: “Drivers and Predictability of Antarctic Sea Ice Extremes – A machine learning approach (DECODE-ICE)”
Antarctic sea ice has shown a slightly positive trend in recent decades, contrasting with the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice. However, starting in 2016, Antarctic sea ice experienced a significant change, marked by record-breaking negative anomalies in 2016 and 2023. The DECODE-ICE project aims to identify key drivers behind extreme Antarctic sea ice fluctuations, establishing a much-needed knowledge base and delivering a comprehensive mapping of how atmospheric and oceanographic drivers influence Antarctic sea-ice extremes. As a second goal, the project will evaluate and implement a Machine Learning-based approach for Antarctic sea ice prediction.
Position #2: “Quantitative risk assessment of climate extremes”
The project will focus on the basic statistical concepts needed to develop an overview of risk in the climate sciences. One fundamental concept is that pooling risk reduces the uncertainty in the average loss over specific time periods. The growth in regulator-driven standards and associated external assessment of model design, operation and validation, particularly regarding the incorporation of catastrophe models into climate systems, is producing a broader community of specialists throughout organisations where catastrophe model literacy is essential.
Position #3: “Earth System Modelling with Interactive Ice Sheets”
The Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are crucial in shaping Earth’s long-term future, driving significant sea-level rise and influencing the climate over centuries to come. The PhD project is focussed on simulations with a comprehensive Earth system model covering the next 300 years. The aim of the project is to investigate interactions between the climate system, cryosphere and solid Earth components and to assess the resulting relative sea-level change. The PhD project will also contribute to our team’s technical activities, advancing the interface between ice-ocean and solid Earth components within the Earth system model.
Position #4: “Earth System Modeling – Past climate changes of the Atacama region”
Key tasks of this project will be to setup, perform and analyze a series of paleoclimate simulation experiments using a complex Earth System Model, enhanced by a module for stable water isotope and water tagging diagnostics. The main scientific interest will be on past climate changes with a focus on major transitions in the global ocean-climate system during the last 15 million years. Model output will be compared to both marine and terrestrial proxy data to reconstruct and synthesize changes of the hydrological cycle in the Atacama region, currently one of the driest regions of the Earth.
All successful applicants will become a member of the Paleoclimate Dynamics Group at AWI Bremerhaven The research focus of our group is the analysis of different climate conditions in the past and the identification of driving mechanisms causing climate change. Candidates should have a strong motivation and ability to work in a highly interdisciplinary and international environment. Fluent English in written and oral form is mandatory.
Positions #1- #3 are part of AWI INSPIRES – AWI’s International Science Program for Integrative Research in Earth Systems
Position # 4 is part of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 1211 „Earth – Evolution at the dry limit“ (coordinated by the University of Cologne).
As a Ph.D. student at AWI you will also be enrolled in our Helmholtz Graduate School for Polar and Marine Research ‘POLMAR’.