Assistant Project Scientist

Assistant Project Scientist

University of California Los Angeles

Requisition Number: JPF10811

The UCLA Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE) invites applications for a position of Assistant Project Scientist whose research will focus on the coupled role of ocean and ice-sheet dynamics in ice-shelf rift and damage evolution. The research includes the following activities:

• Investigate how damage and rifts on ice shelves impact the dynamics of glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula, and the resulting sea level response.
• Will use NASA's Ice-Sheet and Sea-Level System Model (ISSM) as the basis for numerical simulations and analysis, leveraging available satellite data (LandSat, ICESAT2, and NISAR) necessary for model initialization.
• Specifically, this work will focus on a regional model configuration in ISSM of the Antarctic Peninsula, which includes the Larsen C and George VI ice shelves, and will require work in improving existing ice damage/rifting formulation in ISSM.
• These simulations will investigate the impact of melt-water induced hydrofractures and damage at the ice shelf surface on grounding line and ice front dynamics of glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula over the historical period up to 2100 CE. This will require work with NASA JPL's Glacier Energy Mass Balance (GEMB) in ISSM, to calculate the surface mass balance forcings needed to force the ice sheet model simulations over the next century.
• Interpreting how the Antarctic Ice Sheet is influenced by variability in the mechanical properties of its ice shelves and how this variability will influence the global warming driven ice mass loss by the end of the century.
• Improve transient damage/rifting formulation in ISSM, which will be released freely on Github for the broad cryosphere community.

To apply, please visit: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10811

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