Project title:
Deforestation Simulations in the Amazon and Downscaling Greenhouse Gas Fluxes using WRF-GHG
The research theme of the General Project:
This research is part of the RCGI project - 64 GHG project - D.1, titled “Greenhouse gas emissions in the Amazon and data analysis system and services.” In this project, a multidisciplinary team will build a computer system that integrates data associated with land use changes, remote sensing of greenhouse gases, meteorological parameters, forest degradation data, and models’ simulations to study how Amazonian land use change the climate.
Description:
Observations showed that the Amazon deforestation area experienced a significant increase in non-precipitation clouds, especially during the dry season. Changes in land use increase spatial differences in land cover, and it is an important driver of changes in surface fluxes and cloud organization. Temperature increases due to land-use change increase seasonal forest water scarcity, accelerating forest degradation and decreasing carbon sequestration rates. The annual carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from tropical deforestation and forest degradation account for about 14-20% of total anthropogenic carbon emissions. Assessing the impacts of climate change and increased climate extremes on the carbon source and sink of the Amazon Forest ecosystem is the main goal of this project. To achieve this goal, the project will run global and regional models for different scenarios of Amazon land use. The Earth System Model (CESM) will conduct control and feedback experiments of coupled atmosphere, ocean, and land simulations. In the control experiments, land use does not change with time—for the feedback experiments, land cover changes based on land use trends. Multiple sets of experiments will be conducted to couple the atmosphere, ocean, and land step by step to test the signal strength of the impact of land use change on the atmosphere and ocean. Associated with the global models downscaling using Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) model will be used to evaluate the physical processes occurring during the simulations time. The simulations will be compared with MapBiomas databases and greenhouse gas and environmental variables obtained by satellite from 1985 to 2020.
Requirements to fill the position:
This research plan requires a broad area of knowledge in atmospheric sciences. It needs to have a meteorology or environmental physics background and programming skills. It needs to understand physical processes associated with land use, mainly in atmospheric numerical models.
INFORMATION ABOUT FELLOWSHIP:
This Postdoc fellowship is funded by FAPESP. The fellowship will cover a standard maintenance stipend of R$ 8.479,20 (Reais) per month.
MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.rcgi.poli.usp.br/opportunities/
Position: Post-Doctoral Fellowship REF: 23PDR203
Access here AND APPLICATION AT REF Post-Doctoral REF.:23PDR203
