Open Positions

• I currently have an open postdoc position to work on Internal Tide dynamics, with a focus on data assimilation for Internal Tide estimate from observations (including SWOT data). A description of the position is given below, and feel free to contact me if you are interested or want further informations.
• There are regularly some open positions in the Odyssey team, which are usually advertised on the website

open postdoc position on Ocean internal tide dynamics

Research project and assignement

The Odyssey team (Inria, Ifremer \& IMT Atlantique, France) is seeking a postodctoral researcher to work on ocean internal tide dynamics. The postdoc will work in the ModITO project (Modelling the Internal Tide in the Ocean), which aim at improving our understanding of ocean internal tides and its mapping from satellite altimeter data, in particular in the context of the forthcoming SWOT mission. The main objective of the project is to develop and exploit a simplified dynamical model of internal tides dedicated to the assimilation of data from satellite altimeter and other sources of observations (e.g. surface drifters). The work is expected to have a great impact in the physical oceanography community: on the one hand, mapping the internal tide field – and more precisely to disentangle the internal waves and the balanced motions – is of critical importance in the context of the SWOT mission. On the other hand, a better quantification of the internal tides and the related dynamical processes are key to better understand the ocean circulation and improve parametrizations of ocean models. The ModITO project will consistently leverage a dynamical framework based on vertical mode decomposition of the primitive equations [e.g. Kelly et al, 2016] for analysing outputs from state-of-the-art high-resolution realistic simulations, formulating theoretical expectations and developing a simplified model for the assimilation of internal tides, following recent efforts on the subject [Le Guillou et al 2016]. Depending of the skills and aspiration of the postdoc, his concrete implication into the project can range from theoretical developments on internal wave propagations in the ocean, to the analysis of state-of-the-art high-resolution realistic simulations, to the actual formulation and implementation of a data-assimilation model of the internal tide.

Research team & environment

Odyssey (for Ocean DYnamicS obSErvation analYsis) is a recently created team involving researchers from Inria (Rennes, France), Ifremer (Brest) and IMT Atlantique (Brest). The team expertise encompasses mathematical (stochastic) and numerical modelling of ocean flows, observational and physical oceanography, data assimilation and machine learning. Gathering this large panel of skills, the team aims at improving our understanding, reconstruction and forecasting of ocean dynamics, and more specifically to bridge model-driven and observation-driven paradigms to develop and learn novel representations of the coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics ocean models. The postdoctoral researcher will work with Noé Lahaye (Inria, Rennes), but close collaborations with other members of the team, in particular with A. Ponte (Ifremer), are expected. The postdoc will be based either at Inria (Rennes, France) or at Ifremer (Brest, France) – as he/she pleases.

Skills

As mentioned above, the precise workload assigned to the postdoc can be adjusted depending on his skills and affinities. Therefore, not all of the following skills are expected to be fulfilled.

Mandatory (at least 2 of the following)

• Ocean dynamics, (geophysical) fluid dynamics, or physics
• Coding (python with a decent knowledge of scientific libraries)
• data assimilation

Optional

• Pangeo environment (xarray & dask), pytorch/jax
• data analysis (mostly applied to outputs from numerical simulations)
• Applied maths

Duration, remuneration and benefits

• 2 years position