JOB DESCRIPTION
Position Details
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £34,980 to £44,263 with potential progression once in post to £46,974
Grade: 7
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to December 2026
Closing date: 7th August 2024
Background
This post will quantify the short-time predictability and long-term changing risk for heavy rainfall over India, and advance the application of Machine Learning (ML) in rainfall prediction and flood forecasting. The Research Fellow will analyse ensemble weather forecasts, and global and regional climate simulations. The post holder will also develop and evaluate ML methods for postprocessing ensemble rainfall forecasts over India and using them for flood forecasting.
Role Summary
- Assess the performance for heavy rainfall forecasts over India from operational weather forecasts.
- Analyse changes in heavy rainfall in global (CMIP6) and regional (CORDEX) climate simulations for India.
- Develop ML postprocessing methods for ensemble rainfall forecasts.
- Develop classical and ML statistical model to estimate hydrological variables from rainfall forecasts for Bihar and Kerala.
- Publish the results in high-quality journals and present them at conferences.
Main Duties
- Define heavy rainfall thresholds including those associated with negative impacts to health care provision in Bihar and Kerala.
- Calculate hit rates, false alarm rates, Brier score etc. for heavy rainfall threshold exceedances for the operational NEPS-G forecast from the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Prediction (NCMRWF) for lead times of 1-12 days.
- Calculate changes in the probabilities and spatio-temporal characteristics of heavy rainfall events over India in CMIP6 and large ensemble global climate simulations, and in regional CORDEX simulations.
- Use ML to analyse how differences in the large-scale climate change signals in the global models are linked to differences in the changes for regional rainfall extremes.
- Implement and test ML methods for postprocessing ensemble rainfall forecasts over India.
- Implement and test different ML architectures, such as multilayer perceptrons, convolutional neural networks, and encoders-decoders for predicting local and regional flooding in Bihar and Kerala from the NEPS-G ensemble weather forecasts.
- Disseminate research findings through publications and conference presentations.
- Supervise students on research-related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate.
- Undertake management and administration related to project.
- Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines.
- Develop research objectives for future own or joint research, with mentorship from the project team.
Person Specification
- PhD, or close to completion, in a relevant, quantitative field, e.g. meteorology, climate science, hydrology, machine learning, physics, mathematics, statistics or related fields.
- Evidence of a good understanding (or capacity to develop understanding) of meteorological processes and numerical weather prediction.
- Evidence of good understanding (or capacity to develop understanding) of statistics and ML.
- Experience working with large meteorological datasets.
- Good programming skills in languages such as Python, MATLAB or R.
- Familiarity with UNIX/LINUX.
- Publication record appropriate to experience.
- Ability to communicate complex information clearly.
- Ability to assess and use resources effectively.
- Understanding of and ability to contribute to management and administration processes.
- Ability to contribute to the planning and organising of the research project.
- Ability to coordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort.
- Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.
Informal enquiries to Martin Widmann, email: m.widmann@bham.ac.uk
We believe there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.
