Climate Modeller: Why has Antarctic sea-ice increased?

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS), part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), aims to undertake a world-class programme of scientific research, and to sustain for the UK an active and influential regional presence and a leadership role in Antarctic affairs.

The dramatic decrease in Arctic sea ice over the past few decades is a clear indicator of climate change, yet in the Antarctic there has been a contemporaneous increase in sea ice extent. Scientists at BAS have recently shown that the positive Antarctic trend is predominately wind driven. However, it remains unclear whether the ultimate drivers of these changes are anthropogenic or not. Moreover, the present generation of coupled atmosphere-ocean climate models almost uniformly produce a decline in Antarctic sea ice, suggesting that they are failing to correctly simulate key components of the climate system. As sea ice plays an important role within the Earth System, considerable uncertainty must therefore be attached to model predictions of future climate.

Based within the Climate programme at our Cambridge office, you will be part of a team investigating this recent increase in Antarctic sea ice. You will be responsible for using state-of-the-art climate models to: i) attribute the cause of the Antarctic sea ice increase, and ii) improve modelled Antarctic sea-ice trends by using new, optimal configurations of the ocean and sea-ice components. This work forms part of a collaborative NERC project between climate scientists and oceanographers from BAS, the National Oceanography Centre and the UK Met Office Hadley Centre.

Qualifications: You will have a Ph.D. in the atmospheric sciences, physics, mathematics, or a related discipline, together with experience running regional or global climate models and an understanding of atmospheric dynamics. Moreover, you will also have demonstrated an ability to conduct original, independent high-quality scientific research, with a track-record in the peer-reviewed literature. Finally, you will have experience of programming in a Linux/Unix environment and be familiar with data analysis and visualisation software (IDL/MatLab/Python).

Duration: The position is a full-time fixed-term position of 2.5 years duration with an expected start date of 1st September 2014.

Salary: Salary will be in the range of £26,715 to £30,000 per annum. We offer a generous benefits package including a final salary pension scheme, free car parking, flexible working hours and 30 days annual leave.

On-line application forms and further information are available on our website at www.antarctica.ac.uk/employment

These are also available from the Personnel Section, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET. Tel: (01223) 221508.

For informal enquiries please email Dr Andrew Orr at anmcr@bas.ac.uk

Please quote reference: BAS 52/14
Closing date for receipt of application forms is: 31st May 2014
Interviews are scheduled to be held on: Mid to late June 2014

We welcome applications from all sections of the community. People from ethnic minorities are currently under-represented and their applications are particularly welcome.