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| High resolution mapping of atmospheric water vapour using remote sensing over arid regions of North Africa | ||||||||||||||||||
This studentship will combine novel remote sensing methods, using radar interferometry, with ground-based and airborne measurements, to analyse water vapour variability over field research sites in North Africa. The data will provide unprecedented high-resolution measurements of atmospheric circulations, and the water cycle of this arid region. Through the evaluation of high-resolution atmospheric numerical models, the results will be used to develop water vapour correction methods for radar interferograms. The Sahara desert and its margins in North Africa is one of the hottest areas on the planet, exhibiting thermal convection which can extend 6 km in altitude. The hot, deep atmospheric boundary layer mixes both water vapour and atmospheric dust high into the troposphere, and contributes to the local and regional transport of water vapour by modifying the pressure patterns. The physical processes at work here are representative of many other arid, sparsely-populated and poorly observed parts of Africa and the Middle East. Recent studies have shown significant and diverging errors in atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) for this and other parts of the African continent. Atmospheric water vapour is one of the biggest uncertainties in GCMs, and is controlled by processes acting on scales from a few metres up to the continental and global scales. The finest scales, which control the mixing and transport of water, are impossible to detect with conventional satellite-based methods. In this project, satellite radar interferometry will be used to map water vapour over arid regions of North Africa. This will be used to: • explore the water vapour structures which control the diurnal cycle of mixing and the water cycle over the region; • evaluate the performance of operational weather and climate prediction models; and thereby • devise strategies for accounting for the water vapour features in satellite radar interferometric analysis of surface deformation. The results will be applicable widely in other arid and semi-arid regions of the planet. This studentship will form part of a major new consortium led by the University of Oxford, studying the atmosphere over the Sahara desert. The student will have the opportunity to contribute to the field programme, including the deployment of ground-based sensors and instrumented research flights. The studentship will also be part of the Afar Rift Consortium, in which scientists at Leeds University have been collecting satellite radar data from the Afar region since late 2005 in response to a major rifting episode. Funding Notes Suitable for graduates of a physical or numerate science, such as Physics, Meteorology, Mathematics, Engineering or Environmental Science. Cuesta J., J. H. Marsham, D. J. Parker and C. Flamant, 2009, 'Dynamical mechanisms controlling the vertical redistribution of dust and the thermodynamic structure of the West Saharan atmospheric boundary layer during summer', Atmos. Sci. Lett., 10, doi:10.1002/asl.207 Wright, T.J., C. Ebinger, J. Biggs, A. Ayele, G. Yirgu, D. Keir, A. Stork (2006), Magma-maintained rift segmentation at continental rupture in the 2005 Afar dyking episode, Nature, 442, pp.291-294. doi:10.1038/nature04978. |
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Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 Results
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