The Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) plans to hire new staff to contribute to the Destination Earth (DestinE) project.

Destination Earth (DestinE), is an ambitious initiative of the European Union to create a digital twin – an interactive computer simulation – of our planet. Using an unprecedented amount of data, innovative Earth system models and cutting-edge computing, Destination Earth will allow users to explore interactively the different components of the Earth system and natural and human-induced change. They will be able to look at the past and present and to test and develop future scenarios. The ECMWF, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) are the three organizations entrusted by the EU to achieve this unprecedented endeavor for climate, weather and computing sciences. 

The DE_330 On-demand Extremes Digital Twin consortium plans to develop a solution for making on-demand configurable digital twin engines for forecasting of environmental extremes at the sub-km scale. It will provide a workflow of high resolution prediction systems of extreme weather events, combined with decision-making support for impact sectors including hydrology, air quality and energy meteorology. It will rely on physics-based and data driven model systems and computationally-intensive dataflows organized on the EuroHPC high performance computer platforms. At the end of the first phase of Destination Earth this prototype production environment will be used to demonstrate the On-demand EXtremes Digital Twin (DT) engines. This work will be done in close collaboration with the ECMWF.

The RMI contributes to the On-demand Extremes Digital Twin project on the following topics: setup of the IT environment of the future Digital Twin (DT), code adaptations for GPUs, adaptation of the physics parameterizations for running at hyper-resolution (sub-kilometer scale), development and implementation of statistical postprocessing techniques, modeling of air pollution and development of applications for wind energy. The current position is open for:

A specialist in statistical postprocessing of NWP output

Job function

You will:

• develop a postprocessing framework on the European Weather Cloud interfacing the raw NWP model outputs and the finalized probabilistic products;
• contribute to the development of statistical postprocessing techniques to provide corrected forecasts, together with their uncertainties.

Your profile

• You have a master of a PhD degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or civil and bio- engineering.
• You have a good knowledge and interest in the use of computing infrastructure (Linux, Dockerization) and programming languages  (Fortran, Python…).
• You have a good knowledge and interest in statistical techniques (Machine Learning and/or classical techniques). 
• Experience in the statistical postprocessing of weather forecasts is an additional asset.
• You are able to write reports and documentation.
• You are willing to make international travels.

We offer

• You will work at the RMI. You can find a description of working at the RMI here.
• For the current position we offer a contract starting from 1^st of May at the earliest to the end of the project in April 2024. 
• Successful candidates will get a salary scale depending on whether they have a PhD or not, i.e. SW2 (for a PhD) or SW1 (master level).

Gender equality & gender mainstreaming

In February 2022, the RMI adopted a Gender Equality Plan (GEP). This is an action plan to promote gender equality and gender mainstreaming within the RMI. Through this GEP, the RMI commits itself in a formal and/or substantial way to contribute to the realization of gender equality through efforts on two fronts: internally at the level of the Institute and externally through increased cooperation and exchanges with BELSPO and the other Federal Scientific Institutes. Moreover, the implementation of a GEP is an important criteria when submitting national and international research projects.

The actions of this plan will be evaluated and adapted on a yearly basis, so that the dynamics created can continuously evolve. The RMI is proud to be able to build a professional and scientific environment that is increasingly inclusive and responsive to today's societal challenges.

Application procedure

Interested candidates are invited to express their interest by sending their CV and a letter of interest, before March 23 to Stéphane Vannitsem (Stephane.Vannitsem@meteo.be).