Mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is currently the largest contributor to global sea level rise. Remote sensing satellites have revolutionized our understanding of the mass balance of the GrIS. Since 2010, the ESA CryoSat-2 radar altimetry mission provides a dense coverage of elevation changes of the GrIS. Yet, the use of radar altimetry comes at a price: the signal may penetrate into the snowpack, introducing an ambiguity in the origin of the reflected echo. In this project, funded by the The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the successful candidate will develop an adaptive processing chain (retracker) that adjusts to the properties of the observed surface and minimizes this ambiguity. The improved elevation observations will be used to generate high-resolution time series of mass changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet. In the second phase of the project, a method will be developed to merge the CryoSat-2 observations with those of the upcoming ICESat-2 mission, based on Bayesian statistics to address to inherent difference in sampling of the two missions.

The project will be carried out within the Ice and Climate group of the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU).

• MSc in Physics, Aerospace Engineering, Geodesy, Signal Processing, or similar field;
• affinity with remote sensing and/or climate modelling of polar regions;
• strong programming skills (Fortran, Python or similar);
• experience with statistical/mathematical software environments such as R or Matlab;
• ability to work independently, to critically assess own results and to cooperate within a wider research team;
• good reporting and presentation skills;
• excellent level of written and spoken English.

We offer a position (1.0 FTE) for four years, with an evaluation after one year. The gross salary - depending on previous qualifications and experience  - ranges between €2,222 and €2,840 (P-scale according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full-time employment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8 % and a year-end bonus of 8.3 % per year. We offer a pension scheme, (partly paid) parental leave, collective insurance schemes and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). More information is available at: working at Utrecht University.

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The Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU) is an interfaculty Research Institute that focuses on the fundamental aspects of the climate system. Research is organized in five main themes: atmospheric physics and chemistry, atmospheric dynamics and boundary layer meteorology, ice and climate, ocean circulation and climate and coastal and shelf sea dynamics. The IMAU includes some 15 faculty members, 15 postdocs and 25 PhD students. The graduate programme is organized in the Buys Ballot Research School.