NOAA Predictability of Weather and Climate
NOAA seeks research on the limits of weather and climate predictability, exploring initial condition impacts, equilibrium prediction methods, and model improvements.
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 (Application Deadline)
Funding Amounts: Base stipend approximately $70,000 plus $4,000 travel allowance; stipend increases with experience; typical award duration 2-3 years.
Summary: Supports postdoctoral and senior researchers conducting advanced research on the limits of weather and climate predictability at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratories.
Key Information: Open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and non-U.S. citizens; relocation and health insurance benefits included; requires contacting a NOAA research adviser prior to application.
Description
This fellowship opportunity, offered through the NRC Research Associateship Programs at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratories in Boulder, CO, supports research focused on understanding the limits of predictability in weather and climate systems. The research aims to explore how much information about the state of a chaotic dynamical system (such as the atmosphere or coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface system) can be retained from an initial time into the future.
Key research themes include:
- Investigating initial value related predictability for weather (hours to days) and climate (months to decades).
- Understanding the impact of initial condition errors on forecast skill and the finite limits of predictability.
- Exploring equilibrium climate predictability, i.e., the system's long-term response to external forcings like greenhouse gas concentrations.
- Developing more direct and economical methods to predict system responses to external forcing beyond traditional long-term model averaging.
- Studying initialization of imperfect models, atmospheric dynamics degrees of freedom, variance prediction models, and statistical weather generators.
This program is designed for postdoctoral and senior researchers interested in advancing fundamental knowledge in atmospheric and climate sciences, with potential applications in improving forecasting models and climate response predictions.
