The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CU CIRES) invites applications for a full-time Research Scientist position at NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). The successful applicant will work to evaluate the influence of commercial radio occultation data on the quality of SWPC ionospheric models, products, and services.
SWPC is involved in NOAA’s Commercial Data Program (CDP) and Space Weather Data Pilot (SWDP), which is assessing the viability of commercial radio occultation (RO) data for space weather specifications and forecasts. Products derived from the radio occultation data include ionospheric total electron content, electron density profiles, scintillation amplitude, and scintillation phase. The goal of this effort is to compare the data products obtained from the commercial vendor-provided radio occultation satellites with ground-based and space-based environmental measurements, to compare with output from SWPC’s numerical models, to test the ingest of the vendor-provided products in SWPC’s models, and to participate in the development of new ionosphere products and models, particularly the GloTEC real-time 3D electron density Gauss-Markov Kalman filter data assimilation model.
The successful candidate will work with a small team at SWPC to acquire and manage the ionospheric radio occultation data products from multiple vendors, acquire and manage data from numerous world-wide ground-based and space-based sources, compare the vendor-provided radio occultation products with environmental data and model output and participate in the improvement of existing products and the creation of new products.
The work also requires the drafting of reports that address the viability of the commercial data for space weather products. This project will have a duration of one year, with a possibility of renewal for a second year depending on performance and availability of funds.
What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
- Evaluate the impact of commercial radio occultation data on ionospheric models and products by quantitatively comparing these data with satellite measurements (e.g., GNSS RO, in-situ plasma density), ground-based observations (e.g., ionosonde soundings, GNSS TEC, S4, Sigma Phi), and numerical model outputs (34%)
- Develop software tools that conduct periodic checks of the data products being provided (33%)
- Document the suitability of the commercially available ionospheric data products for space weather specification and forecast products (33%)
What We Require
- A PhD degree in a related field is required. Candidates will be employed at the CIRES Research Scientist (RS) career track.
- Experience with programming languages (e.g., Python), code development in the Windows and/or Unix environment, and code source control and documentation.
- Experience developing high-quality and insightful visualization of scientific datasets.