Download Research Scientists

Modern meteorology requires management and analysis of enormous amounts of data, and
offers great and exciting professional challenges. Since the institute was established in 1866,
the Norwegian meteorologists have played a key role in this development. Norwegian
Meteorological Institute is today a leading international environment of expertise in operational
meteorology and climatology.
Research Scientists
The Research and Development Department (R&D) is responsible for developing and
increasing knowledge of weather and ocean forecasts, air pollution, climate and climate
outlook.
The positions advertised belong to the climate research part of the institute. The climate
research agenda of the institute is broad and consists of the development and application of the
Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) in collaboration in particular with the universities of
Bergen and Oslo (one of the IPCC models); dynamic and statistical downscaling of climate
projections and reanalysis, the use of observations to derive time trends of climate variability
and change in particular for Norway and the European Arctic; permafrost; extreme weather
analysis; R&D to develop products for climate services. MET Norway is the leading institution of
the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services (NCCS).
Research at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute is largely externally funded. R&D
department participates in national and international cooperations and has approximately 70
employees in four divisions: (i) modeling and climate analysis (ii) ocean and ice (iii) climate
modeling and air pollution and (iv) operational oceanography and marine meteorology.
We are looking for two new researchers to be employed in two years positions, but with the
possibility of an extension and becoming permanent positions within dynamical downscaling
and empirical-statistical downscaling projects. Global Climate Models (GCMs), used for climate
studies and climate projections, are run at coarse spatial resolution and are unable to resolve
important sub-grid scale features such as clouds and terrain. As a result, GCM output can not
be used for local impact studies. To overcome this problem downscaling methods are
developed to obtain local-scale weather and climate, particularly at the surface level, from
regional-scale atmospheric variables that are provided by GCMs. In dynamical downscaling
output from the GCM is used to drive a regional, numerical model in higher spatial resolution,
and in empirical-statistical downscaling a statistical relationship is established from
observations between large scale variables, like atmospheric surface pressure, and a local
variable, like precipitation at a particular site. The dynamical downscaling shares code with the
numerical weather prediction system at MET. The statistical downscaling tool is developed at
MET for general climate analysis including graphical presentation. The analysis is funded by
research projects and the results are relevant for international (EU, C3S) and national (NCCS)
climate services.
New employees will work in a team of experienced researchers within the work areas.
Increased project portfolio means that we must strengthen the department, which now counts
10 employees in analysis and downscaling techniques for historical and future climate,
modeling of permafrost and snow (surface modelling), as well as dissemination of climate
knowledge.
Relevant work
One or both of
 applying numerical regional climate models in project work
 using empirical-statistical downscaling tools in project work
Both positions
 write papers in international peer reviewed journals and regularly attend national and
international conferences
 participate in the department's activities and reporting requirements
 participate in the department 's efforts to develop and facilitate services for climate
change adaptation
Qualifications
 higher education at the master's or doctoral degree in geosciences, physics,
mathematics/statistics or equivalent
 experienced researchers should be able to show a list of publications
 good knowledge of numerical methods, statistical analysis, computer programming
(Fortran, R), Linux - based operating systems and data formats
 experiences with dynamic or empirical- statistical downscaling is an advantage
We seek people who
 are systematic, responsible and result-oriented
 have good interpersonal skills, ability to work independently and in groups
 good skills in English, writing and oral, is required. However MET is using Norwegian as
main working language and foreign speaking candidates must be willing to learn
Norwegian.
We offer
 professional challenges in a modern technological environment
 good opportunities for self-development
 flexible working
 salary on the governmental salary scales dependent on qualifications and experience
 membership in the National Pension Fund
 pleasant working environment
 6 months probation
It is a human relations objective that the staff should reflect the population composition of
Norway in general, both with regard to gender and cultural diversity.
Further information can be obtained from
Head of Division Jan Erik Haugen,tel: +47 22963331 or mailto:[email protected]
Senior Scientist Rasmus Benestad, tel: +47 22963377 or mailto:[email protected]
Deadline: 8. March 2017
The application must be submitted electronically: https://met.no/English/Open_positions/.
Please attach CV, list of publications and the names of two references.
Oslo, 16. February 2017