Sea Ice Data Scientist

The UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) is looking to hire a Sea Ice Data Scientist to help assess the impacts of climate change on Earth’s polar regions.

Post based at Northumbria University, Newcastle City Campus.

The closing date for applications to this post is Monday 17th June 2024.

WHAT IS CPOM?

CPOM has provided satellite observations and model simulations of the polar regions for 25 years. We monitor the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and sea ice in the Arctic and Southern Oceans. We combine these observations with model simulations to explain how Earth’s ice, oceans and climate interact and evolve. Through this work, we provide the UK with strategic core capability and our products are used by climate and environmental scientists all over the world. 

CPOM scientists work across 10 UK universities, and we collaborate with organisations across the UK and around the world, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). CPOM is led by Northumbria, working in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on behalf of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). We maintain long-term collaborative relationships with a range of external organisations, including the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the UK Met Office (UKMO), ESA, and NASA. We collaborate closely with ESA, for example, on current satellite missions and future design concepts, including CryoSat-2, Sentinel-3, and CRISTAL.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Applications are invited for a two-year position (with a review of possible extension to five years) in data science of sea ice. We invest in and develop our staff members to achieve their potential, so we would work with the postholder to help realise their career goals and aims for progression.

Your work will use data collected by satellite instruments and process it into estimates of sea ice thickness. These are crucial for assessing the impacts of climate change on Earth’s polar regions and beyond. Sea ice has declined in the Arctic for the past decades, and in the Antarctic we have recently seen recent rapid reductions. Providing robust and up-to-date estimates of sea ice thickness is crucial for understanding where and why sea ice is declining, and for inputs into, and comparisons with, model simulations. The work will also contribute towards the design of new satellite missions.

Your role will be to use CPOM state-of-the-art altimetry software system to produce operational estimates of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice thickness. This will include updating the existing sea ice altimetry processing chain and maintaining the supply of primary and other  datasets to ensure that Arctic and Antarctic sea ice thickness estimates are produced routinely and without interruption and are disseminated through the dedicated CPOM data portal. In addition, you will work closely with researchers and technical staff across CPOM to implement new technical advances into the CPOM software system. You will maintain up to date documentation of processes and produce regular reports on your progress towards achieving CPOM’s national capability objectives.

The successful candidate will be primarily supervised by Dr Rosemary Willatt, and work with a large group of cryosphere researchers within CPOM and the wider Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK. This work is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council’s programme of national capability science.

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