Dr H Graven
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Project in competition for NERC studentship funding for 3.5 years beginning in October 2017.
Estimating and attributing regional methane emissions using innovative atmospheric measurements
This studentship will be part of the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet (SSCP) DTP, with co-supervisor Tim Arnold at the National Physical Laboratory.
Methane (CH4) is the second most important greenhouse gas contributing to climate change, and emissions of CH4 also contribute to air pollution. Identifying the contributions of different CH4 source types (e.g. fossil fuels, agriculture, wetlands) is essential for evaluating anthropogenic CH4 emissions and validating emissions reduction policies, as well as for understanding the response of wetland ecosystems to climate change.
This project will investigate how new measurements of the isotopes carbon-13 and carbon-14 in CH4 that are being developed at Imperial and NPL can be combined to help define regional sources of CH4 in the UK. The student will participate in atmospheric measurements conducted in the UK and perform atmospheric model simulations using the Met Office Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME).
Using the atmospheric model, the student will simulate the atmospheric CH4 concentration and isotopic composition over the UK for different emission scenarios. The simulations will help to evaluate the constraints on methane sources that could be provided by the new isotopic data for different observational networks in the UK. Emission scenarios and sensitivity studies will focus on specific CH4 mitigation measures from the UK Committee on Climate Change and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6).
Applicants should have a degree and/or masters in Physics, Maths, Earth Sciences or a related field at the first class honours level or equivalent by October 2017. Prior research and computing experience (e.g. Matlab, Linux, Fortran) are desirable.
Please contact H. Graven by email with any questions, or to apply.
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