Open Position: Radioglaciologist – Deadline 06 Feberuary 2022

Description

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is looking for a Radioglaciologist to lead and develop the existing ice sounding radar capability of BAS in support of a range of radio-glaciology science targets and activities. Developments will cover hardware, electronics, data management, data processing and product development.

Who we are

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) delivers and enables world-leading interdisciplinary research in the Polar Regions. Its skilled science and support staff based in Cambridge, Antarctica and the Arctic, work together to deliver research that uses the Polar Regions to advance our understanding of Earth as a sustainable planet. Through its extensive logistic capability and know-how BAS facilitates access for the British and international science community to the UK polar research operation. Numerous national and international collaborations, combined with an excellent infrastructure help sustain a world-leading position for the UK in Antarctic affairs.

British Antarctic Survey is a component of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). NERC is part of UK Research and Innovation www.ukri.org We employ experts from many different professions to carry out our Science as well as to keep the lights on, feed the research and support teams, and keep everyone safe! If you are looking for an opportunity to work with amazing people in amazing places, then British Antarctic Survey could be for you. We aim to attract the best people for those jobs.

Purpose

To lead and develop the existing ice sounding radar capability of BAS in support of a range of radio-glaciology science targets and activities. Developments will cover hardware, electronics, data management, data processing and product development. Advances will likely include depth and swath sounding, polarimetric observations, wide-band, and high-frequency measurements of snow accumulation. Although focussed on airborne capability (piloted and autonomous), the role will include support for developments in ground based radar capability within BAS.

Qualification

PhD in physics, maths or similar discipline, or equivalent experience.

Duties

• Responsible for maintaining the BAS airborne radar capability, and establishing new surveying and processing strategies, supported by BAS engineering.
• Develop and lead (as PI or Co-I) proposals in radio-glaciology and undertake innovative research in radio-glaciology applications.
• Publishing on average one first author paper each year in a high-quality journal, or equivalently, delivering a key piece of software or key dataset.
• Responsible for developing existing airborne systems to deliver, for example, calibrated polarimetric data sets for the study of ice sheet internal structure.
• Responsible for establishing new airborne radar capability to exploit the configurable multi-antenna nature of the system, such as subglacial topographic swath mapping.
• Responsible for developing, maintaining and documenting a robust and repeatable airborne radar data processing flow, incorporating up-to-date processing techniques, able to take raw airborne radar data through to 2D georeferenced images/data slices suitable for evaluation of ice thickness, bed properties and internal ice sheet architecture, with timely publication via the UK Polar Data Center.
• Duty to provide support for development and processing of other radar systems, including ground based and miniaturised versions for UAVs.
• Duty to maintain a forward looking view of radar system developments, feeding into future capital and engineering expenditure to develop the next generation of radar echo sounding systems.
• Duty to maintain communication between science teams and engineering disciplines to sustain capability and relevance of radio-glaciology at BAS

Communication skills – a) oral skills b) written skills

• Proficient in written and spoken English – Essential

Computer / IT skills

• Demonstrated experience of Matlab or Python code development – Essential
• Experience writing advanced analysis programs – Desirable [2]
• Familiarity with Unix environment – Desirable [3]

Decision Making

• Ability to solve problems independently – Essential

Interpersonal skills

• Can work as part of a team or individually – Essential
• Ability to interpret and share knowledge by advising and guiding others as required – Essential
• Comfortable working in small teams – Desirable [2]

Managerial ability

• To demonstrate an ability to meet agreed objectives and work to deadlines – Essential
• Experience of cross-discipline collaboration, such as engineering and science – Desirable [3]

Numerical ability

• Advanced numerical skills – Essential

Qualifications

• PhD in physics, maths or similar discipline, or equivalent experience – Essential

Skills / Experience

• Strong physics-based research background, or – Essential
• Postdoctoral experience with radar systems: development; data acquisition; data processing; data analysis. – Essential
• Experience with advanced radar analysis techniques (e.g. SAR, polarimetry). – Essential
• Experience in radio-glaciology data processing including SAR-processing – Desirable [1]
• Expertise in signal analysis – Desirable [1]
• Experience in remote sensing system development/analysis – Desirable [3]

Please quote reference for any queries: BAS 21/152
Publication date: 04/01/ 2022
Closing date for receipt of application forms is: 06/02/22
Interviews are scheduled to be held on: 24th February 2022