项目介绍

2024年10月7日

We invite applications for a 4-year PhD position working on glacier change using a variety of geospatial data. The successful candidate will contribute to research and teaching at the Department of Geography, University of Zurich.

Context
Earth observation data are essential for monitoring global environmental change, especially in the cryosphere. Here, glaciers play a critical role in the global water and energy cycles, serving as essential freshwater reservoirs. As glaciers are increasingly threatened by climate change, monitoring their dynamics is key to managing freshwater resources, assessing local geohazard risks and developing climate adaptation strategies.

Project description
This PhD project focuses on monitoring global glacier change by analyzing satellite imagery to study snowline and albedo variations. The research aims to improve the understanding of glacier dynamics by monitoring changes in glacier facies (such as snow, ice and debris cover), determining snowline and albedo, and analyzing both spatial and temporal trends in these variables in different glaciated regions of the world. Using Google Earth Engine, the project will explore the potential of a variety of geospatial data (e.g. satellite data, topographic data, climatic data) to advance glacier mass balance modelling. In situ observations as well as airborne data will be also used to calibrate and validate spaceborne observations across different spatial scales. The successful candidate will be based at the Department of Geography in Zurich and will be supervised by Hendrik Wulf.

Your responsibilities

We are looking for a highly motivated, creative, solution-oriented and independent PhD candidate with a passion for geospatial analysis and an interest in tackling environmental science problems with high societal impact. The successful candidate will:

• Develop and implement research questions.
• Process and analyze multi-source geospatial data such as multi-spectral satellite data (e.g., optical, thermal, SAR), glacier data (e.g., ground observations, outlines, modelled mass balance data) and digital elevation models.
• Develop algorithms to improve glacial facies classification.
• Quantify and interpret spatial and temporal trends in glacier surface types and albedo change.
• Present research results at conferences and publish results in peer-reviewed journals.
• Contribute to the teaching of spatial data science courses.
• Collaborate with research partners.

Your profile

The ideal candidate will have a Master’s degree in data science, remote sensing, geographic information science, computer vision, earth systems science, geophysics, or related fields.
Very good skills in processing and analyzing geospatial data and advanced programming and computational skills (e.g. Python, Google Earth Engine) are required. A strong interest and possibly some experience in spatial data science, image processing, machine learning, change detection and trend analysis is expected. Excellent writing and communication skills in English are essential, as is a strong interest in working in a team-oriented, interdisciplinary environment.

The candidate will be based at the Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland. The candidate is expected to work primarily in the office, with the flexibility to work remotely one day per week.

Further information

Questions about the job

Dr. Hendrik Wulf