The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder encourages applications for a Post-Doctoral Associate or Research Scientist within NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) in Boulder, Colorado. We are seeking a scientist to drive exciting research relevant to the Earth’s climate atmosphere, and specifically to work on obtaining and interpreting aircraft-based measurements of black carbon-containing aerosol. Black carbon is a radiatively active species with important global impacts on the Earth’s radiation budget, and is also valuable as a tracer of aerosol processes in the atmosphere. The selected candidate will work in close cooperation with an inclusive, supportive, and enthusiastic team of research staff in deploying customized single particle soot photometer (SP2) instruments to measure black carbon’s abundance and microphysical properties. We will fly the SP2 on a NASA WB-57F high altitude aircraft as part of NOAA’s Stratospheric Aerosol Baseline and Radiation Experiment (SABRE), with a mission planned for a tropical deployment in late summer, 2025
The successful applicant will learn to operate, calibrate, and maintain the SP2s, learn to use an existing software suite to analyze and quality assure data, and analyze data for scientific findings that will be presented at meetings and in written manuscripts for publication in the peer-reviewed literature. Experience with instrumentation including troubleshooting, electronics, laser systems are helpful qualifications for this position.
What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
- Maintain and calibrate SP2 instruments. (25%)
- Support deployment of SP2 instruments on research aircraft as part of SABRE-TROPICS (csl.noaa.gov/projects/sabre/). SABRE-TROPICS will include field activities out of Houston, TX, and a tropical site (potentially Costa Rica, Cape Verde, or Panama). Other locations, domestic or international, may also be used. (25%)
- Process and analyze the data from this instrument from airborne missions. This requires interpretation of multi-parameter data sets, and interaction with other instrument investigators. (25%)
- Present findings at scientific meetings and in peer-reviewed scientific journals. (25%)
What We Require
- Ph.D. in chemistry, physics, atmospheric sciences, environmental engineering, or a closely related field.
- Experience with data interpretation for presentation of scientific results at meetings and in scientific journals.
- Experience in experimental physical sciences and data analysis.
- Additional requirements for Research Scientists: