Atmospheric Composition Evaluation Tool Engineer (RE1)

Context And Mission

The Department of Earth Sciences of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), BSC-ES henceforth (bsc.es/earth-sciences) is one of the most active groups in air quality and atmospheric composition modelling, climate prediction and climate services in Europe. The department is currently composed of about 70 people, including scientists and technical and support staff, and is structured in four distinct but interacting research groups: Atmospheric Composition (AC), Climate Prediction, Earth System Services (ESS), and Computational Earth Sciences (CES).

The AC group aims at better understanding and predicting the spatiotemporal variations of atmospheric pollutants along with their effects upon air quality, weather and climate. This is addressed through the continuous development and application of numerical models over multiple scales, from weather to climate and from global to urban scales. The AC group is the research backbone of the Multiscale Online Non-hydrostatic AtmospheRe CHemistry model (MONARCH), which contains advanced chemistry and aerosol packages coupled online with a meteorological driver. MONARCH runs operationally at the first WMO Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for Atmospheric Sand and Dust Forecast, the Barcelona Dust Forecast Center, and contributes to multi-model ensemble forecasts both at the WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System Regional Center (WMO SDS-WAS RC) for Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP). MONARCH is currently a candidate model for the Copernicus Air Quality Regional Production Service of the European Commission. The group also develops and maintains the CALIOPE air quality system (“CALIdad del aire Operacional Para España”), which provides high-resolution air quality forecasts over Europe and Spain. The models and forecasts are enhanced by an intensive use of up-to-date observations, both for model evaluation and to feed the aerosol ensemble-based data assimilation system.

The AC group interacts with the CES group on the development and optimization of model codes, pre- and post-processing tools, and operational model settings, with the CP group on the links between atmospheric aerosols and climate, and with the ESS group to enhance the use of air quality products and services.

Within this context, we are looking for a Software Engineer who supports development aspects of the model evaluation strategy within the Atmospheric Composition group.

The successful candidate will collaborate with scientists from the AC and CES groups and will benefit from the training program and BSC staff benefits: international multidisciplinary scientific environment, advanced research training, and advanced computational facilities. We encourage applications from highly motivated physicists, computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians (and related disciplines) with outstanding qualifications.

We encourage applications from highly motivated candidates with demonstrated experience in earth science and interest in applied research projects.

Key Duties

• Develop and optimize the in-house python-based Evaluation Tool (PROVIDENTIA) to perform benchmark analysis and operational evaluations in a robust, flexible and computationally-efficient way.
• Support and maintain the set of Python tools developed in house to deal with Atmospheric Composition model simulations and post-processing.
• Support other colleagues to include their own solutions into the set of tools developed and maintained by the Earth Sciences Department. The codes will be appropriately documented and updated using GIT tools.
• Analyze model and observational datasets, prepare charts and report the results.
• Find ways to efficiently present the results.