Postdoctoral Scholar – Atmospheric Sciences (ASR-related)

30 January 2023 - 31 May 2023

The Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar focused on understanding aerosol-cloud interactions in mixed phase clouds. The scholars will focus on extending a numerical model of aerosol processing in liquid clouds to include ice phase processes and studying the impact of cloud-aerosol interactions on mixed-phase clouds during marine cold air outbreaks. We are especially interested in candidates who have experience in numerical modeling (specifically large eddy simulation), aerosol-cloud interactions, and observationally-based model evaluation.

Predictions of past and present climate change are complicated by the uncertain magnitude of cloud-aerosol interactions, which are difficult to constrain using observations and global climate models.  Simulating cloud-aerosol interactions at fine, eddy-resolving scales may lead to greater understanding of the processes at work and also to improved representation of these processes in coarser-scale models used for climate prediction.  The postdoctoral scholar will extend an existing aerosol processes and chemistry in liquid clouds to include ice and mixed-phase cloud and aerosol processes.  The aerosol treatment represents both ultra-fine (Aitken) particles and cloud condensation nuclei, and a focus of the project is to understand the role of these ultra-fine particles in cloud processes and, in particular, cloud transitions from overcast to broken cloud regimes.