Research Scientist Senior

Job Description

Description

SAIC is looking for a Research Scientist Senior- Meteorology

  This is a Remote position and may be worked from anywhere in the United States

Job Description:

The candidate will serve as a integral member of an atmospheric sciences research and development (R&D) team for the US Navy Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine Meteorology Division in Monterey, CA that develops advanced Meteorology and Oceanography (METOC) support products for the US Navy.  

The candidate will perform work in one or more of the following NRL research areas:  Global and mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP); coupled modeling of the atmosphere, ocean, waves, and ice; global and mesoscale ensemble prediction systems; and global and mesoscale data assimilation (DA).

Global NWP tasks include, but are not limited to:

• Global NWP Model spiral development using the Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) or other global forecast models’.
• Real-time tests for NAVGEM or other global models, and their associated DA systems, on Defense Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) hardware and local and cloud-based High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms.
• Developing code and scripts for NAVGEM or other global model Ensemble Prediction System (EPS).  Improve EPS performance by increasing the resolution of the system, multiple physics packages, perturbation of physical parameters, and alternative ensemble construction and initialization methods.
• Examining the metrics of specific METOC phenomenon of high interest to the US Navy, such as the frequency of occurrence of high-speed near surface winds, and larger-scale teleconnection phenomenon, such as the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO). 
• Investigating and evaluating the representation of the MJO in NAVGEM or other global models and assess the correspondence between clouds, radiation and precipitation.
• Developing an execution strategy to migrate global model software code between various HPC architectures.
• Developing flexible best practices for real-time data transfer of METOC observations, and post processing of data staging strategies to maximize the HPC compute cycle to minimize wasted cycles or storage space.
• Using the Navy Earth System Model (NESM) or other global coupled forecast models to conduct earth system prediction research and contribute to coupled global model spiral development.
• Developing code and scripts to enable and optimize the coupling and running of the components (atmosphere, ocean, ice, and wave) systems in NESM or other global coupled system using the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) and National Unified Operational Prediction Capability (NUOPC) standard.

 

Mesoscale NWP tasks include, but are not limited to:

• Developing numerical analysis and prediction techniques for both the current Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) and future DoD mesoscale NWP systems. Includes physical parameterizations, advanced numerical techniques, land-surface modeling, and ensemble prediction systems and includes work with: 1) coupled mesoscale oceanic and atmospheric models, 2) Quality control (QC) and ingest of evolving non-conventional data merged with conventional data, 3) a new paradigm of NWP forecast verification that emphasizes subjective material, feature recognition, and metrics to quantify the probability of occurrence, and 4) innovative approaches and techniques to advance the connectivity of Navy users with NRL R&D resources.
• Contributing to developing the next-generation NEPTUNE modeling system.  Using NEPTUNE or other next-generation dynamical cores to conduct global and regional-scale NWP research and contribute to Global and Mesoscale Model spiral development.
• Developing a Mesoscale Atmosphere-Ocean-Wave-Ice-Hydrology Coupling Capability.   Includes testing and evaluating the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) versus Wave Watch III (WW III) models in 3-way coupled systems, to include: 1) initialization, 2) lateral boundary condition update, and 3) optimization and efficiency.  Testing and evaluating the impacts of atmosphere-ocean coupling in lower atmosphere and upper ocean boundary-layer structure for long-term DA tests.
• Merging the current and future COMAPS for Tropical Cyclones (COAMPS-TC®) code with the main COAMPS code.  Performing benchmark tests and making new COAMPS-TC versions fully compliant with NRL and FNMOC coding standards.  Testing new improvements to the data assimilation and TC vortex initialization and evaluate its impact on TCs to improve COAMPS-TC in both physics parameterization and in validation of its predictions.

• DA System Development tasks include, but are not limited to:

• Developing a new DA system using a collection of flexible-state estimation techniques that uses ensemble forecasts to estimate flow-dependent background error covariance or other probabilistic aspects of the background forecast. May be an ensemble-based system like the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF). 
• Developing a hybrid ensemble-variational scheme.
• Developing flexible computing and network architectures to implement and test global and other DA system at remote DSRC and HPC centers.
• Developing non-traditional DA tools that are compatible with the NRL Atmospheric Variational Data Assimilation System (NAVDAS) – Advanced Representer (NAVDAS-AR) or other advanced DA systems.  DA tools include: 1) data ingest, QC, processing the background fields, generation of observation error statistics, production of the linearized forward operators, and formation of the innovation vectors; 2) sorting of the innovations into prisms, specification of the background error covariance, the descent algorithm, the post-multiplier, use of the linearized forward operators, production of the correction vectors, the buddy check algorithm, and parallel implementation using Message Passing Interface (MPI); and 3) interpolation of the correction field to the model surfaces, mean sea level pressure, and other sub-terrain problems; production of statistics for the NWP models; and controlling the forecast and analysis cycle.
• Developing satellite data fusion applications products to support NRL Satellite Tactical Application project objectives, including research related to GeoIPS or other systems that could include data manipulation and fusion, digital image analysis, algorithm development, system design, and fusion of satellite data with other types of environmental data such as NWP model data.   
• Developing a coupled DA method for an atmosphere-ocean-ice-wave-land coupled system.
• Developing satellite DA assimilation capabilities for NWP models for observations from various satellite sensors, including radiances from visible, IR and microwave (MW) radiometers, radio occultation  profiles and reflectivity from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-RO and GNSS-R), ozone and aerosol measurements, atmospheric motion vector (AMV) and ocean surface winds, and cloud properties from satellite sensors.
• Developing tools and techniques for  ingesting data from new satellite sensors by: 1) demonstrating new remote sensing sensor capabilities by using near real-time data sets, 2) demonstrating the data processing capability by testing the navigation of the new sensor data and calibration of the new sensor data, 3) demonstrating the sensor data meets the designed specifications through testing and validating the navigation and calibration data processing capability, and 4) conducting extensive testing, validation and tuning for eventual transition to operations.
• Performing pre-launch system engineering and post-launch calibration and validation on MW data received from DoD MW sensors, including the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounders (SSM/I and SSMIS), the Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer (COWVR) and other MW satellite sensors to ensure the data is compatible with existing and future Navy DA systems and make a positive contribution to NRL model accuracy.  This includes satellite raw data records (RDR), antenna temperature records (TDR), sensor data records (SDR), and derived environmental and sounding data records (engineering data records (EDR), lower atmospheric sounding (LAS), and upper air sounding (UAS)) calibration, validation, forward model development, and algorithm improvement.

 

 

 

 

 

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience:

• Masters Degree in Meteorology, Oceanography, Physical Science, or in a related Mathematics and Engineering fields. 
• Shall have at a minimum 10 years of demonstrated global/mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) or data assimilation (DA) experience.
• NWP focus: Must act as the primary point-of-contact for the development of operational global and/or mesoscale NWP systems including ensemble weather prediction systems and scripting for the management of operational job submission and data processing tasks, including error handling; provide recommendations for resolution of research issues related to global and/or mesoscale problems; must have demonstrable LINUX High Performance Computing (HPC) skill and adaptation of solutions for the operational environment.
• DA focus: Must act as the primary point-of-contact for the development of operational global and/or mesoscale DA systems including ensemble and hybrid DA systems and scripting for the management of operational job submission and data processing tasks, including observation data handling and error handling; provide recommendations for resolution of research issues related to multi-scale DA problems; must have demonstrable LINUX High Performance Computing (HPC) skill and adaptation of solutions for the operational environment.
• Must have demonstrable experience working as a project team member.Demonstrated experience publishing peer-reviewed scientific literature, software documentation, or Navy guides and/or handbooks.
• Experience in support of Government research is required.
• Must possess Interim Secret clearnace with the ability to obtain and maintain Secret clearance

Desired

• Demonstrated experience in meeting Navy METOC operational requirements.
• Three-to-five years of experience developing, testing, and transitioning Navy operational NWP software systems.
• Three-to-five years of experience developing, testing, and transitioning Navy operational DA software systems.
• Three-to-five years of experience publishing peer-reviewed scientific literature, software documentation, Navy guides and/or handbooks, Navy climatologies and port studies.

 

Target salary range: $100,001 - $125,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.

Covid Policy: SAIC does not require COVID-19 vaccinations or boosters. Customer site vaccination requirements must be followed when work is performed at a customer site.

Overview

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