Three funded PhD positions in the Glacial Dynamics Group at the Department of
Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, are
currently available:
(Colleagues are asked to bring this to the attention of competent
students who might be interested in these projects.)
1) Coupled ice and climate system modelling with a focus on high frequency
variability/instability. We know the climate system jumped around a lot during
the last glacial cycle, but models have yet to fully capture such climate
system variability. This project will focus on the well documented Heinrich
event 1 to Younger Dryas interval. It will examine sensitivity of climate
response to both meltwater injection chronologies and the numerical
representation of relevant processes.
This project also includes the following sub-project: Introduction of sub-grid
stochastic parametrizations to improve the representation of turbulent
processes in low resolution GCMs for long time-scale modelling. Results will be
compared against those of higher resolution models.
2) Analysis of high-frequency feedbacks in the glacial system between: ice
streaming - basal hydrology - grounding line displacement - calving. This
project will quantify bounds on potential instabilities in the system for the
Antarctic ice sheet. The introduction of stochastic components will be
considered. It will bound Meltwater Pulse-1a contributions from Antarctica as
well as potential future contributions to "abrupt" sealevel change.
This project will also entail calibration of the basal hydrology component of
the MUN glacial systems model.
3) Inversion of present-day North American sediment distribution. This
PhD project will invert the present-day distribution of glacially
transported sediments over North America to infer the history of
sediment production and transport. It will build on recently completed
work on erosion and sediment transport model development
(
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.02.017). It will also evaluate the
extent to which the existing sediment distribution can be used to further
constrain past glacial evolution and will test the regolith hypothesis for the
origin of the mid-Pleistocene transition.
This project will further examine the impact of fully coupled subglacial
hydrology, sediment production/transport/deposition, and basal drag
physics on both long-term ice-sheet evolution and high-frequency ice
sheet dynamics, in collaboration with project 2 above.
Applications are invited from candidates with an interest in glaciology,
numerical modelling, continuum mechanics, climate modelling, and/or Earth
systems science. Applicants must have achieved a BSc or Masters's degree in
physics, geophysics, applied mathematics, meteorology, oceanography, or closely
related areas. Applicants must also be interested in working in a collaborative
environment on computationally intensive projects.
Required skills:
-Some experience in using FORTRAN or C, and analysis packages such as
OCTAVE/MATLAB
-Knowledge of general physics (even better with understanding of
fluid dynamics and/or atmospheric/ocean physics)
-Fluency in relevant maths (linear/matrix algebra and differential
equations; statistics is very advantageous)
The group has a dedicated 540 core cluster (to be doubled in 2014) and
access to further computational resources through ACEnet.
Associated benefit: the spectacular natural environment of
Newfoundland, Canada
Details of graduate studies in Physics and Physical Oceanography at
Memorial University can be found at
http://www.mun.ca/physics/grad/
Interested students should contact:
Lev Tarasov
Canada Research Chair in Glacial Dynamics Modelling
Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1B 3X7
lev@mun.ca
http://www.mun.ca/physics/people/faculty/tarasov.php
include the following:
1. A cover letter including their name, academic status and contact
details, as well as the names and contact details of two or their
faculty advisers from whom confidential letters may be sought.
2. A statement of interest including long-term academic plans, research
interests,...
3. A short resume/CV, including a list of courses taken, and grades.
4. A self evaluation of strong and weak research skills, along with
likes and dislikes associated with research and modelling.
This electronic communication is governed by the terms and conditions at
http://www.mun.ca/cc/policies/electronic_communications_disclaimer_2012.php
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