04 Apr 2017. The position has been filled. Please do not apply anymore.
We are excited to announce the availability of one three-year PhD fellowship within the context of the EMeRGe campaign.
The main goal of the PhD thesis will be to investigate the impact of emissions of major population centers (MPCs) in Europe and Asia on the distribution of key pollutants (NOx, O3, CO, PM) in the troposphere.
First, a state-of-the-art 3D numerical model of the atmosphere (TM5, 1°x1° horizontal resolution) will be used to simulate global historical, current, and future NOx, CO, O3, and particulate matter (PM) climatologies. Second, regional changes at a finer spatial resolution (0.1°x0.1°) will then be analyzed with respect to the emitted pollutants and chemical transformation using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem).
The simulations will focus on Europe and Asia, the two regions where the HALO research aircraft will perform observations in July 2017 and April 2018, respectively, in the frame of the EMeRGe (Effect of Megacities on the Transport and Transformation of Pollutants on the Regional to Global Scales) field campaign.Sensitivity tests will be conducted to identify the role of a) emission strengths of the major population centers (MPCs) of the two areas, b) meteorology, c) sinks within the plume, d) geolocation and height of MPC and the plume, and e) interaction with chemical species initially produced outside the plume boundaries (e.g., biomass burning, biogenic volatile organic compounds) and their impact on the budget and life-cycle of the pollutants of the plume.
In order to be formally eligible for this fellowship, you have to: