The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Remote Sensing Division in Washington, DC is seeking applicants for postdoc opportunities in ensemble aerosol prediction with a range of focus areas from ensemble data assimilation to verification and post-processing.   The Navy has a particular interest in forecasting naturally occurring and anthropogenic aerosol particles which impact operations.  Current Navy aerosol forecasting relies on the deterministic Navy Aerosol Analysis Prediction System (NAAPS).  A probabilistic version of the NAAPS system, referred to as Ensemble NAAPS (ENAAPS), was developed and is in the process of transitioning to operations.  The ENAAPS system will be a focal point of the above research opportunities. 

Projects related to ensemble data assimilation will focus on incorporating new observation types into the Navy’s ENAAPS ensemble aerosol prediction system in order to improve aerosol vertical distribution, speciation, and coupling to meteorological parameters.  Those wishing a verification focus will leverage NCAR’s METplus verification software to evaluate Navy and international model performance with an emphasis on developing metrics, improving visualization, and inferring processes related to aerosol vertical distribution using a host of lidar and airborne datasets.  Finally, research projects related to post-processing will leverage existing machine learning and statistical methods for consolidating ensemble aerosol information into likely outcomes that can be used in downstream decision-making applications. 

Candidates are required to have completed a PhD in atmospheric science, environmental engineering, or a closely related field before starting the postdoc.  Some programming experience is required (Python, Fortran, Shell Scripting).  NRL has access to high performance computing resources that will leveraged for postdoc research projects. Additionally, previous experience with data assimilation and aerosol prediction is preferred.  This research opportunity is a collaborative effort with NRL's Marine Meteorology Division in Monterey, CA.  As such, the same research opportunity can be found under the Marine Meteorology Division for those interested in being stationed in Monterey.  

Rubin, J.I., Reid, J.S., Xian, P., Selman, C.M., Eck, T.F. (2023). A Global Evaluation of Daily to Seasonal Aerosol and Water Vapor Relationships Using a Combination of AERONET and NAAPS Reanalysis Data.  Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4059-4090, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4059-2023.

Reid, J.S., Gumber, A., Zhang, J., Holz, R.E., Rubin, J.I., Xian, P., Smirnov, A., Eck, T.F., O’Neill, N.T., Levy, R.C., Reid, E.A., Colarco, P.R, Benedetti, A., Tanaka, T. A (2022). Coupled Evaluation of Operational MODIS and Model Aerosol Products for Maritime Environments Using Sun Photometry: Evaluation of the Fine and Coarse Mode. Remote Sensing., 14(13):2978. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14132978.

Xian, P., Reid, J.S., Hyer, E.J., Sampson, C.R., Rubin, J.I., Ades, M., Asencio, N., Basart, S., Benedetti, A., Bhattacherjee, P., Brooks, M.E., Colarco, P.R., Da Silva, A., Eck, T.F., Buth, J., Jorba, O., Kouznetsov, R., Kipling, Z., Mikhail, S., Perez Garcia-Pando, C., Pradhan, Y., Tanaka, T., Wang, J., Westphal, D.J., Yumimoto, K., Zhang, J. (2019) Current state of the global operational aerosol multi-model ensemble: an update from the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP). Q.J.R. Meteorol Soc. 1-34, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3497.