The Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research invites applications for 3 Postdoctoral Researchers in the field of climate dynamics and earth system modelling. The successful candidates will be part of the EU-funded H2020 project “Tipping Points of the Earth System” (TiPES), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 820970) and will work on (1) earth system modelling of palaeoclimate, (2) theoretical concepts for climate sensitivity and (3) tipping in stochastic climate models.

Several subsystems of the Earth may respond abruptly at critical future levels of anthropogenic forcing, which have been associated with tipping points (TPs). It is paramount to identify safe operating spaces in terms of these critical forcing levels, in order to prevent harmful transitions to alternative, undesirable states of the Earth and its subsystems. The mechanisms leading to abrupt climate transitions are only partly understood, and reliable warning signals for forthcoming transitions are urgently needed. TiPES addresses these questions in a joint effort of 18 European institutions, combining paleoclimatology, time series analysis, Earth system modelling of past and future climates, applied mathematics and dynamical systems theory, as well as decision theory.

Detailed task descriptions

Postdoc 1
The successful candidate will be part of work package WP2 of the TiPES project, which focusses on stability in past warm climates. Specifically, the candidate will be expected to study the interaction of changes in forcing conditions (e.g. CO2, continental geometry) and feedbacks in the climate system responsible for climate conditions and transitions during the Cenozoic period using time-slice modelling with an Earth system model (CESM). The candidate is expected to participate in coordinated model intercomparison projects such as DeepMIP. The aim is to characterise the ability of several IPCC type models to simulate the background climate and the variability and stability of these past warm climates.

Postdoc 2
The successful candidate will be part of work package WP4 of the TiPES project, which focusses on developing theory for climate response and climate sensitivity. Specifically, the candidate will be expected to work on extending the concept of state-dependent and as well as of transient climate sensitivity in order to address the problem of climate response at different temporal scales. The aim is further to quantify the background state dependence of feedbacks as well as the interaction between slow and fast processes involved in climate sensitivity using using long palaeo-GCM simulations under different geographical and greenhouse-gas boundary conditions as well as short GCM simulations under ultra-high spatial resolution.

Postdoc 3
The successful candidate will be part of work package WP5 of the TiPES project, which focusses on theoretical underpinning for safe operating spaces in the presence of tipping points. Specifically, the candidate will be expected to work on the analysis of bifurcation behavior in a hierarchy of stochastic climate models, connecting physical mechanisms over the model hierarchy. In addition, new tools for identifying and classifying tipping behaviour in climate models will be developed. A prototype example which will be studied is the transition behaviour of the Atlantic Ocean circulation. 

We are looking for candidates with:

• a PhD in Physics, Applied Mathematics, Meteorology, Geosciences or a related field;
• experience in climate modeling (required);
• basic knowledge of (geophysical) fluid dynamics (advantage);
• excellent skills in programming and numerical / statistical analysis of simulated and observed data.

The candidate is offered a full-time position for two years, with an evaluation after one year.  The gross salary, depending on the candidate’s qualifications and work experience, is in the range between €2.709,- and maximum €4.978,- (scale 10/11 Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full time employment.

The salary is supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. In addition we offer a pension scheme, a partially paid parental leave and flexible employment conditions. Conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. The research group will provide the candidate with necessary support on all aspects of the project. For further information, visit our website: working at Utrecht University.

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