Arctic Carbon Cycle Dynamics and the Permafrost Carbon Feedback: CARVE, ABoVE, and Arctic CO2 and CH4 Syntheses

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects. This specific opportunity focuses on Arctic carbon cycle dynamics and the permafrost carbon feedback. The Arctic is warming dramatically, yet sustained observational time series and accurate physical models are lacking to understand how Arctic ecosystems and carbon cycle will respond to climate change. Permafrost soils are warming faster than Arctic air temperatures, threatening to mobilize massive reservoirs of organic carbon that have been sequestered for tens of millennia. This research applies JPL's measurement and modeling capabilities to understand and quantify carbon cycling in northern high latitude ecosystems using satellite data, airborne measurements from NASA's CARVE and ABoVE investigations, and ground-based atmospheric measurements. NPP researchers will participate in ABoVE Airborne Campaigns, international activities to synthesize Arctic CH4 and CO2 data, and develop methods to detect the permafrost carbon feedback. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.