A fully-funded 4 year PhD position is available in “ET4I: EvapoTranspiration maps for Ireland”, in collaboration with Teagasc, Met Éireann and the School of Mathematics and Statistics, UCD, Dublin, Ireland.
This research project aims to produce gridded Actual Evapotranspiration (ET) and Potential Evapotranspiration (ET0) gridded datasets for Ireland. Potential evapotranspiration is a measure of the atmosphere’s ability to remove water from the surface through both evaporation and transpiration assuming no control on water supply. Actual Evapotranspiration is the quantity of water that is actually removed from a surface due to the processes of evaporation and transpiration. Met Éireann currently produces 1 km gridded products of rainfall and temperature based on climatological observations. These would be greatly complemented if the potential (ET0) and actual evapotranspiration (ET) could be estimated on this grid to provide the input into hydrological models as well as agricultural decision support systems on a daily time scale.
This project will use state-of-the-art methods and data, including satellite data, data from the Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network (ISMON, 2022), and the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory (NASCO, 2020) flux tower data, coupled with forecasts from high resolution numerical weather prediction (HARMONIE’s surface model SURFEX) and Machine Learning techniques.
This project will produce novel research including national ET & ET0 maps, and associated academic papers. National ET maps will enable more accurate modelling of soil moisture, nutrient availability as well as leaching of nutrients from the soil. National ET maps will also enable weather-based nutrient advice to be given to farmers and also allow for more accurate N2O emission modelling. Importantly, national ET maps will help inform national policy e.g. the Nitrates Directive and Nitrates Action Plan.
Please send applications as pdf files to both gary.lanigan@teagasc.ie and conor.sweeney@ucd.ie with your CV, a letter of motivation, academic transcript/degree certificate, and two academic referees.
Further information is available in the document below. If you have any questions, please contact conor.sweeney@ucd.ie.
