FUNDING IS AVAILABLE FOR UK STUDENTS. FUNDING AWARDED FOR THIS PROJECT WILL COVER TUITION FEES AND STIPENDS FOR UK STUDENTS. EU STUDENTS ARE NORMALLY ELIGIBLE FOR TUITION FEES ONLY IF THEY HAVE SPENT THE PREVIOUS THREE YEARS IN THE UK UNDERTAKING EDUCATION; THEN, THEY WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR TUITION FEES AND STIPENDS. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS FUNDING; THEY ARE STILL WELCOME TO APPLY FOR THIS PROJECT, BUT WOULD HAVE TO FIND ALTERNATIVE FUNDING.
This fully funded studentship is available to start at any time up to 1st October, 2010.
This project may be a CASE studentship with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.
In 2009, a unique experiment commenced to measure mixing in the Southern Ocean. DIMES (Diapycnal and Isopycnal Mixing Experiment in the Southern Ocean) is a joint UK-U.S. effort.
Further details may be found on:
http://dimes.ucsd.edu/
The experiment includes a tracer release, moorings, floats and research cruises over the next 4 years.
This studentship is funded through a NERC consortium grant and offers a great opportunity to develop your oceanographic research skills through involvement in field work and data analysis with scientists around the world.
This Ph.D. project contributes towards the goals of DIMES, by determining the temporal and spatial context of the mixing experiment.
You will study the period of the DIMES experiment and determine how typical (or otherwise) it is. This will include analysis of satellite remote sensing data (e.g., sea surface height observations to calculate eddy kinetic energy), as well as temperature and salinity data from the DIMES cruises. You are likely, also, to make use of data from Argo floats and atmospheric forcing data.
Depending on your interests, we may also analyse ocean model output.
Questions we will address include:
If the tracer is dispersed and mixed vertically and/or horizontally rapidly, is that because the eddy field during the experiment is anomalously energetic? Is the wind field anomalous, either locally or circumpolarly? If we detect seasonal changes in the mixing, is this because the fronts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current are shifting north-south over rough topography with a seasonal time scale?
You will take part in one or more DIMES cruises in the South Atlantic and be trained in observational physical oceanography.
You will develop skills in Matlab and data analysis.
You will attend DIMES consortium meetings in the UK and U.S. and present results at international meetings.
Attendance at summer schools is encouraged.
Contact:
For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Prof. Karen Heywood, at
k.heywood@uea.ac.uk or the Faculty of Science Admissions Office, at
sci.pgr.admiss@uea.ac.uk or +44 (0) 1603 593002.
How to apply:
An application may be downloaded from our website, at:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/admissions/courses/PG
Completed application forms should be submitted to:
Admissions Office, Faculty of Science, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
The deadline for receipt of completed applications is Friday,4th December, 2009.
