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PhD position (f/m/x) – Remote Sensing of land-atmosphere coupling and hydro-climatic extremes Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ






PhD position (f/m/x) – Remote Sensing of land-atmosphere coupling and hydro-climatic extremes Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung - UFZ


The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) with its 1,100 employees has gained an excellent reputation as an international competence centre for environmental sciences. We are part of the largest scientific organisation in Germany, the Helmholtz association. Our mission: Our research seeks to find a balance between social development and the long-term protection of our natural resources.
The newly established Department of Remote Sensing in UFZ in tandem with the Remote Sensing Centre for Earth System Research (RSC4Earth) - a joint initiative of UFZ and the Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences at Leipzig University - conducts innovative research to advance the understanding of the Earth system via the integration of various remote sensing, data science, and process-oriented modelling techniques. It has extensive research experience in quantifying land surface dynamics from multi-source Earth observations across scales.

Within the PhD framework "MoDEV - Towards novel model-data fusion for understanding environmental variability in space and time from high-resolution remote sensing" we are seeking to appoint a highly motivated candidate for the PhD project "Remote Sensing of soil moisture dynamics".
PhD position (f/m/x) – Remote Sensing of land-atmosphere coupling and hydro-climatic extremes
Working time: 65% (25.35 hours per week), limited to 3 years
Your tasks:
The PhD project aims to systematically investigate the role of land-atmosphere feedback (essential variables) on the occurrence of extreme events (e.g., drought, heat wave) and their interactions with different ecosystems based on satellite observations, field data, and model simulations. Key research questions include:
How do the land-atmosphere feedbacks change during and in the wake of climate extremes over different ecosystems? Will these feedbacks intensity extreme events in addition to large-scale atmospheric circulations (e.g., ENSO, MJO)?
How will ecosystems alter hydrological processes during and after extreme events (e.g., soil moisture, evapotranspiration, vapor pressure deficit)?
How will evapotranspiration respond to soil and atmospheric stress during and after extreme events?
Your profile:
Master degree (or equivalent) in earth system science, remote sensing, meteorology, hydrology, physical geography, environmental sciences, physics, statistics, computer sciences, or a related field
Good programming skills (e.g., Python, Fortran, R, or Matlab)
Experience in terrestrial and atmosphere EO data processing and analysis
Interest in understanding of land-atmosphere feedbacks and their role in climate extremes
Willing to publish results in peer-reviewed journals and present at scientific meetings
Good communication skills in English, and strong interest to work in an interdisciplinary research team
We offer:
Excellent technical facilities which are without parallel
The freedom you need to bridge the difficult gap between basic research and close to being ready for application
Work in interdisciplinary, multinational teams
Excellent links with national and international research networks
Excellent support and optimal subject-specific and general training with our HIGRADE graduate school
Remuneration in accordance with the TVöD public-sector pay grade 13 (65%)





Vineesh V
Assistant Professor of Geography,
Directorate of Education,
Government of Kerala.
https://www.facebook.com/Applied.Geography
http://geogisgeo.blogspot.com

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