L’Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca ricerca dottorandi per un progetto di ricerca relativo allo studio di precipitazioni estreme.

Il bando scade il 19 aprile 2023.

Maggiori dettagli sulle selezioni sono disponibili al seguente link.

Gli studenti che intendono conseguire la laurea entro ottobre 2023 in scienze dell’atmosferca, fisica o un campo correlato sono incoraggiate a partecipare. Chiunque fosse interessato può contattare la Prof.ssa Claudia Pasquero (claudia.pasquero@unimib.it) al più presto.

RESEARCH PROJECT:
EFFECTS OF LAND COVER ON EXTREME PRECIPITATIONS
The project builds upon previous studies on the relationship between
land surface properties and precipitation. For instance, the
observational and modeling investigations performed in the framework
of the international AMMA project showed that precipitations in
semi-arid regions are affected by soil moisture gradients, favoring
precipitations on drier land next to moister surfaces. The importance
of surface gradients has also been studied over the oceans,
demonstrating that precipitations are favoured over strong sea surface
temperature fronts. Current studies are also indicating that extreme
precipitations in urban areas have been increasing over the last few
decades more than in rural areas. These studies indicate that the
reasons at the base of the generally observed increase in occurrence
and/or intensity of heavy rainfall events might be both related to
global climate change and to local land use change. Discovering under
what circumstances one of the two processes dominates is of paramount
importance for policymakers and administrators, in order to tackle the
problem in the correct way and reduce risks associated to strong
meteorological events. In this project, high resolution precipitation
and land surface properties datasets will be analysed to investigate
the presence of links between land cover and its gradient with extreme
precipitations. Based on the results of this data analysis part,
physical hypothesis on the possible mechanisms at play will be
formulated, most likely involving surface fluxes, boundary layer
dynamics, and stability of the air column. In the second part of the
PhD, high resolution numerical modelling tools will be used to test
the hypothesis and study the sensitivity to large scale climatic
conditions (such as, for instance, sub-tropical vs mid- and
high-latitude settings). The project will be performed in
collaboration with the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, where the
PhD student is expected to spend 12 months. It is foreseen that a
joint PhD agreement (co-tutelle) will be signed by the two
Universities, with the possibility of awarding two PhD degrees. More
info on the research group can be found at
https://sites.google.com/unimib.it/pasquero.