Two positions are open at CESBIO
Job Title : Research scientist/engineer Post Doc
Application Deadline : March 1, 2022
Duration : 1 year with possible extension
Location : Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la BIOsphère, Toulouse, France
Scientific background
The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite is a passive microwave
interferometer that has been monitoring the Earth surface emission at L-band
(1.4 GHz) since Nov 2009. This ESA (European Space Agency) and CNES
(Centre Nationales d’Etudes Spatiales) mission allows to retrieve surface soil
moisture (SM) and the optical depth (L-VOD) over land surfaces at global
scale.
It was shown that the VOD is closely related to the Above Ground Biomass
and so it is used to analyze the trend of the biomass over the twelve plus
years of SMOS observations. The VOD characterizes the vegetation layer
and results from the vegetation water content.
Aim of this work
The aim of this project is dedicated to the SMOS VOD, its evolution with SM
and the vegetation. The identified tasks are : i) Analyze the time series of
SMOS soil moisture and Vegetation Depth VOD ; ii) Compare the VOD with
various indices related to Vegetation such as LAI, NDVI, VOD at passive
microwave frequencies from AMSRE, AMSR 2, active VOD from ASCAT ; iii)
Study the synergy between these indices. iv) Relate the variability of such
indices to vegetation/biomass growth and evolution, including its water
content ; iv) Relate the trends with major climate events (El Nino/La Nina)
Expected profile of the applicants:
The candidate should ideally have a PhD in remote sensing or a related field.
Knowledge in vegetation and biomass, radiative transfer, statistics and skills
in programming (Python, Matlab, …) is required. The applicant should have
excellent oral and writing skills in English.
Work Context
The post-doctoral fellow will be based at CESBIO in Toulouse. The project is
the expertise centre for the Centre Aval de traitement des Données SMOS
(CATDS)
The candidate will be part of a group of about 12 persons dedicated to the
SMOS mission (calibration/validation, retrieval algorithm, applications in
hydrology) and will benefit from their knowledge and experience on the
mission.
This project implies interactions with groups from he BIOMASS team at
CESBIO, but also with WSL (Switzerland), FMI (Finland) and INRAe Avignon.
Monthly gross salary ranges from : Entre 2463 et 2833 € bruts depending on
experience and qualifications. Social security benefits are provided.
Applications
Inquiries and applications (resume and motivation letter) should be sent
before February 30 th 2022, by e-mail to Arnaud Mialon
( arnaud.mialon@cesbio.cnes.fr ), Nemesio Rodriguez-Fernandez
( nemesio.rodriguez-fernandez@cesbio.cnes.fr ), Yann Kerr
( yann.kerr@cesbio.cnes.fr ).
References:
Kerr, Y. H., Waldteufel, P., Richaume, P., Wigneron, J. P., Ferrazzoli, P.,
Mahmoodi, A., … & Delwart, S. (2012). The SMOS soil moisture
retrieval algorithm. IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote
sensing, 50(5), 1384-1403.
E. Bousquet, A. Mialon, N. Rodriguez-Fernandez, C. Prigent, F.H.
Wagner, and Y.H. Kerr. Influence of surface water variations on vod
and biomass estimates from passive microwave sensors. Remote
Sensing of Environment, 257 :112345,2021. doi : https
://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112345.
Bousquet, E., Mialon, A., Rodriguez-Fernandez, N., Mermoz, S., and
Kerr, Y. H.: SMOS L-VOD shows that post-fire recovery of dense
forests is slower than what is depicted with X- and C-VOD and optical
indices, Biogeosciences Discuss, in review, 2021.
[preprint] https://doi.org/ 10.5194/bg-2021-289
Mialon, A., N. J. Rodriguez-Fernandez, M. Santoro, S. Saatchi, S.
Mermoz, E. Bousquet, and Y. H. Kerr. 2020. ‘Evaluation of the
sensitivity of smos l-vod to forest above-ground biomass at global
scale’, Remote Sensing, 12.-: 10.3390/rs12091450
Rodríguez-Fernández, N. J., Mialon, A., Mermoz, S., Bouvet, A.,
Richaume, P., Al Bitar, A., Al-Yaari, A., Brandt, M., Kaminski, T., Le
Toan, T., Kerr, Y. H., and Wigneron, J.-P.: An evaluation of