CALL FOR POSTDOC APPLICATION

Post-doctoral position at CNRM, Météo-France “Remote impacts of West African and/or South Asian monsoons”

A research post-doctoral position is offered jointly by CNRM and CERFACS at the Météo-France campus in Toulouse (France). It is funded by the French ANR project IRCAAM (Influence Réciproque des Climats d’Afrique de l’Ouest, du sud de l’Asie et du bassin Méditerranéen) coordinated by CNRM. The deadline for application is 15 June 2007.

Job description:
The Météo-France research institute, CNRM, and CERFACS are recruitinga post-doc scientist. The task will be the design and analysis of original global atmospheric simulations devoted to the understanding of the reciprocal influence of the West African and South Asian monsoons at the
intra-seasonal to seasonal timescales, and of their possible remote impacts particularly on the Mediterranean basin.

The original experiment design will be based on a regional nudging technique in which the Arpège-Climat AGCM is relaxed towards the ERA40 reanalyses (grid-point nudging of U, V and T) over a specified 3D monsoon domain. Besides control experiments with prescribed SSTs and
interactive soil moisture, sensitivity experiments will be also conducted in which the AGCM is coupled to a mixed layer ocean model (addition of the SST feedback) or relaxed towards its own soil moisture climatology (suppression of the land surface feedback). Particular attention will be paid to the occurrence of extreme climate events, their potential sensitivity to the monsoon diabatic forcing, their potential predictability at the sub-seasonal to seasonal timescale, and
their potential amplification through SST or soil moisture feedbacks. Besides idealized experiments with climatological SSTs, case studies will also be used to explore the relative contribution of observed SSTs and observed West African or South Asian monsoon variability to global climate anomalies, especially those found in the free monsoon domain and
over the Mediterranean basin.

The first task will be the calibration of the regional nudging technique in seasonal atmospheric simulations driven by prescribed SSTs. Once the nudging domain and strength will be validated over both West Africa and South Asia, idealized experiments and case studies will be conducted to answer the following questions:

• What is the reciprocal influence of, and the Mediterranean response to, the diabatic heating associated with the annual cycle of the South Asian and West African monsoon climates ?
• What is the reciprocal influence of, and the Mediterranean response to, the interannual variability of the monsoon climates ?
• What are the respective roles of intra-seasonal and interannual modes
  of variability in the apparent teleconnections ?

The second step will be the coupling of Arpège-Climat with a mixed layer ocean model provided by CERFACS. The objective is to study the potential contribution of the SST feedbacks to the global atmospheric response to the monsoons’ annual cycle and intra-seasonal/interannual variability. It will be conducted at CERFACS in close collaboration with CNRM.

Salary: 1700 to 2400 Euros net per calendar month, before income tax, according to job experience.
Contract start : negociable between July and September 2007.
Contract length : 18 months at CNRM, extensible to 30 months (12 months at CERFACS).
Working conditions : office job according to CNRM and CERFACS internal regulations, located on the Météo-France premises in Toulouse.
Equal opportunity : this job is on offer with no restriction on age, sex nor nationality, in accordance with French law.

Required qualifications:

• Ph.D thesis in atmospheric sciences or equivalent, at the time of
  selection jury
• experience in atmospheric numerical modelling
• communication and team work abilities
• familiarity with Unix systems or equivalent, and Fortran language
• good English language level (written and spoken)
• previous knowledge and experience on West African and/or South Asian monsoon intra-seasonal and/or interannual variability would be an advantage.

The selection of candidates will be based on the above elements, with particular emphasis on scientific competence, publication record, and technical competence.

Please send CV, list of publications, letter of intent, two letters of recommendation plus any relevant document, until 15 June 2007, to:

Hervé Douville
Météo-France CNRM/GMGEC/UDC
42 Avenue Coriolis 31057 Toulouse cedex 01
France
e-mail: herve.douville@meteo.fr

as well as a copy to:

Christophe Cassou
CNRS-CERFACS
42 Avenue Coriolis
31057 Toulouse
France
email: christophe.cassou@cerfacs.fr

Application by e-mail is encouraged.