Jobs & Karriere

The Ph.D. will join the AerCARE Group (http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/aercare/) and will be affiliated with the University of Munich. He/she will be based at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich and will work in close collaboration with national and international partners. We offer a three year funding for stimulating, interdisciplinary research in a young and dynamic group. We provide excellent laboratory and office facilities with opportunities to work with world-renowned experts in the field of aerosol research.

Aerosol particles have been identified to cause most of the uncertainties in current quantifications of climate change forcing. Among aerosols, mineral dust particles are of key importance because they contribute to about half of the global annual particle emissions by mass and act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nuclei. Saharan dust is regularly transported westwards acrossthe Atlantic Ocean. Despite substantial progress in the past decade, many questions in our understanding of the climate effects of mineral dust remain open. To improve our understanding of the long-range transport of Saharan mineral dust across the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean we will perform airborne and ground-based measurements in which we study dust aging and mixing processes, and investigate the influence of those processes on dust optical and CCN properties.

Tasks

• Set up and characterization of a cloud condensation nuclei counter for airborne measurements
• Participation in a Saharan mineral dust field experiment with the DLR Falcon research aircraft
• Analyzation of the airborne in-situ data with respect to the CCN properties of undisturbed and mixed Saharan dust
• Publication and presentation of scientific results in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences and workshops

Please submit your application (in English or German) comprising a covering letter explaining your interest in this position, a curriculum vitae, documentation of academic degrees and certificates, and address of an academic referee.