Earth Sciences: Remote Sensing of Clouds and Aerosols

About the role

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Description

This opportunity is closed to applicants who are Senior Fellows (5-years or more past PhD).

This research opportunity is about using theoretical and experimental investigations of the spectral, angular, and polarization properties of scattered sunlight to develop and apply techniques for inferring the optical and radiative properties of clouds and aerosol particles in the Earth's atmosphere. Satellite, aircraft, and ground-based remote observations collected during recent field experiments targeting marine stratocumulus, arctic stratus, boundary layer cumulus, and high-altitude cirrus clouds, in the presence and absence of sulfate, smoke, and dust aerosols, are jointly examined and compared with available in situ aircraft measurements in order to validate the cloud and aerosol properties derived from the remote-sensing measurements. The goal is to develop and apply methods to extract the optical thickness, effective size, and spectral absorption properties of cloud and aerosol particles. The data are also used to study the effect of aerosol particles on cloud microphysics and albedo. Ultimately, the derived properties of clouds and aerosols, and the understanding of how these two atmospheric constituents interact will be used to assess impacts on the Earth's radiation budget in studies of current and future climates.

Location

Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland

Field of Science

Earth Science

Advisors

• Alexander Marshak
  Alexander.Marshak-1@nasa.gov
  301-614-6122
• Brian Cairns
  Brian.Cairns@nasa.gov
  212-678-5625
• Lazaros Oreopoulos
  lazaros.oreopoulos@nasa.gov
  301-614-6128
• Robert Levy
  Robert.C.Levy@nasa.gov
  301-614-6307
• Si-Chee Tsay
  Si-Chee.Tsay-1@nasa.gov
  301-614-6188
• Kerry Meyer
  kerry.meyer@nasa.gov
  301-614-6186

Eligibility

• U.S. Citizens;
• U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR);
• Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status; and,
• Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with 1) a valid EAD card and 2) I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status

Questions

Questions about this opportunity? Please email npp@orau.org

Application Instructions

A complete application to the NASA Postdoctoral Program includes:

• Research proposal
• Three letters of recommendation
• Official doctoral transcript documents

Additional Information

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