Extension of Navy’s Global Weather Forecast Models and Prediction Capabilities to ~500 km Altitude
The Navy seeks to extend its weather models NAVGEM & NEPTUNE to forecast the atmosphere up to 500km altitude, focusing on physical parameterizations, data assimilation, gravity waves, and model benchmarking.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
NRC Research Associateship Programs has archived this opportunity.
Funder: NRC Research Associateship Programs
Due Dates: May 1, 2025 | August 1, 2025 | November 1, 2025 | February 1, 2026
Funding Amounts: $99,200 stipend plus $3,000 travel allowance; relocation assistance available; typical tenure 2-3 years.
Summary: Postdoctoral fellowship to extend Navy’s global weather forecast models (NAVGEM and NEPTUNE) to forecast atmospheric conditions up to ~500 km altitude, including near-space and space environments.
Key Information: Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents; requires Ph.D. earned within last 5 years; research at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.
Description
This fellowship opportunity supports research at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) focused on extending the Navy’s global and regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems—specifically the Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) and the NRL Environmental Prediction System Utilizing a Nonhydrostatic Engine (NEPTUNE)—to forecast atmospheric conditions up to approximately 500 km altitude. This extension covers the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and near-space environment.
Key research areas include:
- Developing improved fast physical parameterizations for the mesosphere and thermosphere.
- Assimilation of thermospheric observations using the local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) method.
- Predictive studies of deep gravity-wave propagation into the mesosphere and thermosphere and their effects on space weather.
- Benchmarking the skill and predictability of 0-500 km NWP forecasts.
- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) development for the NEPTUNE spectral-element dynamical core, including time integrators, molecular viscosity terms, static mesh refinement, and limited area configurations.
Applicants may work on any facet of this high-altitude NWP development or use the extended NWP system outputs on high-performance computing platforms to conduct fundamental research on atmospheric dynamics from planetary to mesoscale levels.
