Ocean–Iceberg Numerical Modelling


Mission

The general mission is to develop research work based on the development and use of the Lagrangian iceberg module implemented in the NEMO ocean model. The selected candidate will contribute to the OCEAN:ICE Horizon Europe project.

Working context

The selected candidate will be affected at the Institute for Environmental Geosciences (IGE), in Grenoble, in the French Alps. This is a public research institute under the affiliation of CNRS, IRD, University Grenoble Alpes, and Grenoble-INP. It brings together about 250 people, including 150 permanent members (researchers, teacher-researchers, engineers) and about a hundred contractual agents (doctoral students, postdocs, engineers and technicians). The institute also welcomes several dozen trainees and scientific visitors every year. It is spread over two sites of the Grenoble University Campus that are 5 minutes away from each other. IGE is one of the main institutes within the Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Grenoble (OSUG) which is a federative structure of INSU.

The selected candidate will join the CryoDyn team, which has a focus on ice dynamics and connections to the climate system, and will be supervised by Nicolas Jourdain and Pierre Mathiot.

There will be strong interactions with Paul Holland (British Antarctic Survey), Thierry Fichefet (UC Louvain) and the NEMO R&D team at LOCEAN-IPSL.

Scientific context

Ice sheet acceleration has increased the flux of icebergs over the last 30 years, which will accelerate further in the future. Icebergs significantly impact the intrusions of warm water towards ice shelves and the Southern Ocean in general. When drifting away from their calving site, icebergs can ground on relatively shallow bathymetric ridges. This induces large areas of multi-year sea ice fastened to these icebergs, as well as subsequent polynyas which may impact dense water formation or ice-shelf melt (Bett et al. 2020). However, the influence of these changes cannot be assessed because current iceberg models are based on overly simple physics, with little consideration of links between icebergs and ice-shelf thickness, bathymetry or sea-ice stress.

Activities

The selected candidate will develop the Lagrangian iceberg module currently implemented in NEMO (Marsh et al. 2015, Merino et al. 2016) by improving the iceberg thickness based on ice shelf characteristics. Other possible developments are related to the interaction between icebergs and sea ice. These developments will be tested and used to address research questions in global or circum-Antarctic ocean simulations. The selected candidate is expected to monitor the upcoming publications, to write scientific articles and to present results in international conferences. An important part of the work is the participation to the OCEAN:ICE and IGE activities (meetings, seminars, etc).

Requirements and selection criteria

The selection will be based on the following scientific and technical criteria:

  • Demonstrated experience in ocean modelling (using NEMO or other models).
  • Demonstrated experience Fortran and Python coding.
  • Demonstrated experience in scientific writing.
  • Good understanding of the climate system, possibly including glaciological aspects.
  • Motivation to disseminate scientific results.

The selection panel will also consider the gender balance of the entire research team.

Job information

  • Employer: CNRS.
  • Type of contract: fixed-term.
  • CNRS Section: 19.
  • Duration of contract: 18 months (renewable for another 18-month period).
  • Expected date of hire: April to September 2023.
  • Work quota: Full time.
  • Required level of studies: PhD.
  • Required experience: No postdoctoral experience required.
  • Gross salary: from 2800€/month to 4100€/month (depending on experience).
  • Paid leave: approximately 45 days per year.
  • Health care: France runs a statutory health insurance system providing universal coverage for its residents (Sécurité Sociale). Most residents additionally pay for a complementary private health insurance for expenses not covered by the statutory health insurance (Mutuelle).

If you are interested:

CNRS ensures compliance with the Commission Recommendation 2005/251/EC of 11 March 2005 on the European Charter for Researchers and on a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (OJ L 75, 22.3.2005, p. 67). OCEAN:ICE is co-funded by the European Union, Horizon Europe Funding Programme for research and innovation under grant agreement Nr. 101060452 and by UK Research and Innovation.