Open Positions
Postdoc Opportunity at the University of Maryland and the US National Weather Service
The University of Maryland, in association with the US National Weather Service (NWS), is seeking to fill a position for a post-doctoral fellow at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC). The successful candidate will support NCEP/EMC with the development and application of neural network techniques to improve the data assimilation systems in association with the state-of-the-art wave model WAVEWATCH III, within NCEP's operational wave guidance systems and products. The effort aims to improve global-scale wind-wave probabilistic forecasts and products beyond week 2, and is part of NWS's R2O initiative, associated with the establishment of NOAA's Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS).
The candidate will work in an operational research environment, as part of a team of scientists at UMD and EMC. Tasks are to be performed at facilities located in College Park, MD. The performance period is expected to start in early October 2016.
Specific Tasks
The candidate will work with scientists at EMC and UMD to improve the skill and products generated by NCEP's Global Wave Ensemble System (GWES) .
Specific objectives are to:
- Improve the GWES wave-height predictability (resolution and reliability), measured by wave-height skill scores including: CRPS, biases, RMS errors, rank histograms, and spread-skill ratios,
- Extend the skillful forecast range from 10 days into week 3,
- Provide a set of preprocessed observational data to remove observation network biases,
- Provide a range of new post-processed forecast and analysis products, attending the needs of its main users, including NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) and National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Education And Experience
A Ph.D. (or equivalent) in Physical Oceanography, Ocean Engineering, Atmospheric Sciences, Applied Mathematics, Scientific Computing, or a related physical or applied science. Familiarity in the area of wave modeling, neural networks, and/or data assimilation is highly desired.
Knowledge, Skills And Abilities
- Familiarity with at least one of: wave modeling, neural network techniques, and/or data assimilation,
- Familiarity with code development in FORTRAN, scripting in Linux/Unix shell environments and familiarity with IDL, Matlab and/or Python,
- Familiarity High Performance Computing (HPC) environments - for example with running environmental models, complex jobs, and processing large amounts of observed and modelled output data,
Desired Skills
- Experience in using mainframe supercomputers and/or workstations in a FORTRAN/UNIX environment, using statistical and display tools,
- Proven ability to work well in a team environment,
- Proven track record of producing relevant peer-reviewed publications,
- Good written and oral communication skills.
Contact
Please contact Professor Steve Penny at the University of Maryland (send to: Steve.Penny at noaa dot gov, and Henrique.Alves at noaa dot gov)
Closed Positions
The following positions have recently been filled:
- Computational Scientist for Ocean Data Assimilation at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC)
- Oceanographer for ocean initialization of coupled hurricane predictions at the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center (EMC)
- Undergraduate Research Assistant for software optimization and algorithmic advancements of Ocean Data Assimilation software
- Graduate Research Assistant for Advanced Data Assimilation methods for the Ocean