NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in Large scalehydrology

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.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research using satellite observations and numerical simulations to better understand and characterize variability of water at the land surface - i.e. in soils, snow and groundwater.
• Identify phenomena and processes in satellite observations that can inform and improve our understanding and ability to simulate the terrestrial water cycle and its relationship with global climate.
• Participate in observation and/or modeling of the terrestrial water cycle.
• Work on observational work including data from GRACE, SMAP, GPM or in-situ stations.
• Perform model diagnosis and analysis using CLM, VIC, CLSM, and LIS frameworks including GLDAS and NLDAS.
• Develop models focusing on moving towards hyper-resolution land surface representations, assimilation of observations, or downscaling and improvement of forcing data.

Requirements

• A Doctoral Degree.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen, U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR), Foreign Nationals eligible for an Exchange Visitor J-1 visa status, or Applicants for LPR, asylees, or refugees in the U.S. at the time of application with a valid EAD card and I-485 or I-589 forms in pending status.

Qualifications

• Experience in satellite observations and numerical simulations.
• Knowledge of CLM, VIC, CLSM, LIS, GLDAS, and NLDAS frameworks.
• Ability to analyze and interpret data from GRACE, SMAP, GPM, and in-situ stations.
• Strong programming skills in relevant languages such as Python, MATLAB, etc.

Skills

• Data analysis and interpretation.
• Modeling and simulation.
• Programming and software development.
• Collaboration and teamwork.

Benefits

• One- to three-year fellowship.
• Opportunity to work at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.

Pay

N/A

Schedule

N/A

Benefits

N/A

Contact Information

Point of Contact: Mikeala
Email: npp@orau.org

Application Deadline

11/1/2026 6:00:59 PM Eastern Time Zone