Norwegian Meteorological Institute

Modern meteorology requires management and analysis of enormous amounts of data, and offers great and exciting professional challenges. Since the institute was established in 1866, the Norwegian meteorologists have played a key role in this development. Norwegian Meteorological Institute is today a leading international environment of expertise in operational meteorology and climatology.

A permanent position as a senior scientist/scientist within the field of "Regional to local air pollution and operational forecasting" is open at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway).

Modeling of transboundary transport of air pollutants on regional and global scales in EMEP has been a central task for MET Norway for many years. This modelling work provides the scientific and technical underpinning of the UN Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP, www.unece.org/env/lrtap/welcome.html). MET Norway also delivers regional air quality forecasting in the European CAMS project (http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/). Recently, a downscaling methodology that bridges the regional scale to urban scale, the uEMEP methodology, has been developed. A new operational local air quality forecasting system, that will apply this methodology, is currently being implemented for Norway, starting with the winter season 2018/2019. It is expected that the work centred around uEMEP will expand and develop further in collaboration with research institutions in Norway and abroad. The successful applicant is expected to significantly influence the developments within this field.

MET Norway’s main air pollution work is organized in the Division for Climate Modelling and Air Pollution. The division has several other tasks which are to some extent associated with modelling of local air quality: modelling of transboundary transport of air pollutants on regional and global scales, Earth System modelling with the NorESM model, as well as emergency modelling related to nuclear accidents and volcanic eruptions. The Division for Climate Modelling and Air Pollution is part of the R&D Department, which is organized in projects and serves the operational segment of MET Norway as well as external project funders.

Responsibility

The successful applicant will work within the field of regional to urban scale air pollution modelling. He/she will contribute to the scientific content of the models, the development of model code, technical implementation and advanced scientific diagnosis of results both

independently and in co-operation with others. Further scientific activities will partly depend on available external funding, and the candidate will contribute to relevant project acquisition together with other members of the group.

Qualifications

• PhD in natural sciences, mathematics, or informatics
• experience within atmospheric modelling and competence in processes influencing local and/or regional air quality
• strong skills in scientific programming
• a scientific track record in dynamics, physics and/or chemistry of the atmosphere
• the successful applicant will be familiar with UNIX/LINUX, FORTRAN-90 and, preferably, python
• experience with project acquisition
• experience with High Performance Computing Environments, parallelization and optimization of model code is an advantage

In addition, the candidate must have

• good knowledge of the English language and good writing skills
• good communication skills, both related to research and presentations in general

Personal skills

• strong motivation,
• ability to take responsibility and leadership, work independently and within a team
• creativite and analytical skills
• ability to work in a result-oriented, accurate and structured way
• willingness to learn basic Norwegian

Conditions

• salary on the governmental salary scales as 1109/1110/1183 scientist, dependent on qualifications and experience, NOK 515.200 - 695.500 pr. year, higher salary can be negotiated in case the selected applicant has excellent qualifications
• membership in the governmental pension scheme (2% deducted from gross salary)
• the first 6 months are a mutual trial period

It is an aim that the composition of the staff at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute shall reflect the composition of the population at large both in terms of gender and cultural background.

For more details about the position, contact Head of Division Hilde Fagerli (ph +47 920 26 597) or Director of Research Lars-Anders Breivik (ph +47 917 50 623).

The application must be submitted electronically; see https://www.met.no/en/About-us/vacancies. Please attach CV, list of publications and the names of two references.