Postdoc position in Solar Radiation Management
University of Edinburgh, UK
Closing date: 16 June 2026
Ther is an Academic Research (Postdoctoral Research Associate) opportunity for a 24-month position to work on the UK NERC-funded grant “Quantifying Efficacy and risks of solar radiation management (SRM) approaches using natural analogues”. The project will use novel machine learning-based methods to determine the climate response to a range of natural event (e.g. wildfires, volcanic eruptions) which can be used as analogues of SRM to provide evidence for informing model improvement without worry about the risks of field experiments. The derived large-scale observational constraints will be used to constrain and advance climate models, and to attribute climate response to SRM.
This position will target a critical problem in climate modelling to improve cloud scheme that contributes one of the most important uncertainties in climate projections (Wang et al 2026, Nature Communications). Wang et al (2026) found that climate models largely underestimated cloud cover response to aerosol perturbation, pointing a key direction for improving climate projections. You will work closely with a Scientist at ETH Zurich to apply a new Neural Network-Based Cloud Fraction scheme into UKESM (UK Earth System Model) and design sensitivity experiments to test its effect, and lead the further improvement of cloud fraction scheme for climate simulations.