NASA Postdoctoral Program - Enhancing Earth Observation and Numerical Weather Prediction through a Next-Generation OSSE Framework and Km-Scale GEOS Nature Runs

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on integrating NASA's next generation of km-scale GEOS Nature Runs into the emerging OSSE framework based on the Joint Effort for Data Assimilation Integration (JEDI). The primary objective is to improve the realism of simulated satellite observations, particularly those sensitive to the lower atmosphere and surface conditions, addressing critical gaps in existing OSSE approaches. The convection-allowing, kilometer-scale Nature Run provides a more realistic simulation of all-sky radiances and serves as an environment for developing algorithms to assimilate active remote sensing data from radars and lidars. Proposed activities include developing synthetic observations for microwave and infrared sounders, developing methodologies to estimate observation errors, and conducting OSSE experiments to evaluate the impact of these observations on data assimilation and numerical weather prediction. This opportunity is closed to applicants who are Senior Fellows (5-years or more past PhD).