Retrieval of geophysical variables from atmospheric spectral radiance measurements in the mid and far-infrared and their interpretation through chemical and atmospheric transport models

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Published: Friday, 03 May 2019 17:00

In the frame of the PhD in Future Earth, Climate Change and Societal Challenge, a scholarship is financed by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of University of Bologna with resources from an agreement with the National Research Council–Institute of Applied Physics "Nello Carrara" based in Florence (IFAC - CNR).

The title of the scholarship is: Retrieval of geophysical variables from atmospheric spectral radiance measurements in the mid and far-infrared and their interpretation through chemical and atmospheric transport models.

The PhD research activity will take place, after the first year courses, at the premises of the IFAC-CNR institute located in Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze) and will focus on the following two main areas:

Study of the potentialities of FORUM mission. FORUM (Far-infrared-Outgoing-Radiation Understanding and Monitoring) is a new space mission concept currently selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as one out of two candidates to be the ninth Earth Explorer. The core team members, who proposed the FORUM experiment to ESA, belong to INO-CNR, IFAC-CNR and University of Bologna. The PhD student will work in close cooperation with the core team members to study and quantify the potentialities of the FORUM mission to explore and understand some of the most important feedback and forcing mechanisms to the Earth’s climate system.

Retrieval of the vertical distribution of minor atmospheric constituents from the decennial series of MIPAS satellite measurements. The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) onboard of the ENVISAT satellite, continuously measured limb-emission spectral radiances in the years from 2002 to 2012. From these measurements, it is possible to retrieve the vertical distribution of many minor atmospheric constituents. Apart some isolated cases, so far the analysis of MIPAS measurements was limited to the retrieval of the most spectrally intense constituents. The PhD student will be asked to contribute to interpret the results of the retrievals with atmospheric chemical and transport models developed at the premises of international research institutions, such as DLR in Germany and MetOffice in the UK with which IFAC-CNR has been collaborating since longtime.

The fellowship is financed by the Department of Physics and Astronomy with resources from an agreement with the National Research Council–Institute of Applied Physics "Nello Carrara" based in Florence (IFAC - CNR) and with the European Space Agency - European Space Research Institute (ESA - ESRIN).

The deadline for submitting the application is: May 15, 2019 at 01:00 PM

For further information please contact:
Prof. Marco Ridolfi (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Dr. Ugo Cortesi (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Dr. Piera Raspollini (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)