Joint PhD: Developing non-linear and interactive sea ice emulators

Arctic sea ice is a key climate indicator.  Sea ice integrates over many years changes in the atmospheric and oceanic fluxes and clearly reflects changes by its varying extent and thickness. Complex climate models have long had difficulties in reproducing these changes realistically, which has been linked to shortcomings in their atmospheric and oceanic forcing of the ice cover. Much of the behaviour of sea ice can directly be linked to (non-)linear relationships involving the external forcing of the ice cover, expressed for example in global mean temperature. This PhD will build a sea-ice emulator that can be used as part of reduced complexity models (or be a module in MAGICC). This will allow impact researchers and policy-makers to have additional key climate variables at hand when performing integrated assessments of mitigation and adaptation options. 

If successful, the PhD candidate will be enrolled at both the University of Melbourne and Universität Hamburg. The candidate will be co-supervised by supervisors at both institutions, will be based at the University of Melbourne and will spend at least twelve months at Universität Hamburg. 

The successful candidate will become a member of the Australian-German Climate and Energy College, Melbourne, 

The application process is competitive, with higher than the equivalent of a University of Melbourne 80% in a relevant degree expected. Information on the University of Melbourne entry requirements can be seen here, and Universität Hamburg requirements can be viewed here. 

The successful applicant will be enrolled in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne. They will be part of the Australian-German Climate and Energy College, the University of Melbourne, and a member in the ‘School of Integrated Climate and Earth System Sciences (SICCS)’, the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), Universität Hamburg. 

SICSS is a graduate school originating from the Cluster of Excellence on Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP, 2007-2018). SICSS is now part of the newly installed Cluster of Excellence CLICCS (2019-2025). SICSS offers education, guidance and supervision from leading experts in integrated climate science. Universität Hamburg and its partners provide a wide-ranging research infrastructure in climate science and an international campus atmosphere with students and lecturers from all over the world. 

The candidate's scholarship will include a 100% fee remission scholarship, a living allowance for three years with a possible 6-month extension, and funding for travel.