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Research Engineer/Post‐Doctoral position: Snow Monitoring from Space One‐year position (CNES contract) – Starting date expected September 2011
Job description:
The work will focus on remote sensing of snow over mountain ranges surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Snow plays the role of a hydrological reservoir in winter and spring that reduces the impact of summer droughts. Snowmelt may represent a very important part of downstream flows in Mediterranean regions, e.g. up to 50% in Lebanon and Moroccan mountains. Furthermore, since snow is not directly impacted by human activities, it is an excellent indicator of climatic changes. A long‐term monitoring of the snow cover would allow a better understanding of the climatic variability and trends.
In this context, the applicant will contribute to the development of a processing chain adapted to study snow from data acquired by large field‐of‐view sensors (AVHRR, since 1989; SPOT‐ VEGETATION, since 1998; MODIS, since 2000). The objective is to characterize the space and time variations of snow‐covered areas over Mediterranean mountain ranges. Preprocessing algorithms for geometric and radiometric corrections will be applied in order to inter‐compare and homogenize the various satellite data sets. The applicant will develop methods to analyze time series of remotely‐sensed snow indices and to derive indicators describing the space and time (seasonal and inter‐annual) dynamics of snowpacks. He will test several methods to generate cloud masks and time composite synthesis following different criteria and time steps. The applicant will perform evaluation through quantitative (comparison with ground ‘truth’ and high spatial resolution satellite images) and qualitative (space‐time consistency, cross comparison with derivatives of digital elevation model...) tests.
Suitable expertise and skills:
- Ph.D. related to Earth Sciences and/or engineer diploma in Computer Sciences.
- Excellent knowledge of programming languages and methods (Open‐Source: Python, Gdal, Orfeo ToolBox, R; computing environment IDL/ENVI, MATLAB...).
- Experience in signal processing and, as an asset, basic knowledge in Climatic Sciences.
Contacts:
For any information or application (CV + cover letter), please contact us at the following addresses:
benoit.duchemin@cesbio.cnes.fr, laurent.drapeau@cesbio.cnes.fr.
Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère – UMR 5126 (UPS-CNRS-CNES-IRD) http://www.cesbio.ups-tlse.fr/ Adresse postale : 18, avenue Edouard Belin – bpi 2801 – 31401 Toulouse Cedex 4 – France