Start Date: October 2015.

Supervisor: Karen J Heywood, k.heywood<στο>uea.ac.uk                            

What scientific question will you investigate?

The South Asian summer monsoon provides 80% of the annual rainfall for over one billion people. We need to understand how the ocean and the atmosphere affect each other; this is key to understanding and predicting monsoon behaviour. There is increasing evidence that it is not just the physics of the seawater that is important, but also how much plant-life is present. The plants contain chlorophyll and make the water green; this absorbs the sunshine more than clear blue water. This project will investigate the importance of this process in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.

What will you be doing as part of the PhD project?

You will join the Bay of Bengal Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE) project using a new technology, ocean gliders, to make multidisciplinary observations in summer 2016. You will use your analysis of the upper ocean observations to run experiments with a climate model to test the effect of the ocean chlorophyll field.

What training will you receive?

You will join the vibrant and active UEA Seaglider Group, part of the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (COAS). You will participate in a research cruise, pilot gliders, and attend international conferences, workshops and summer schools. You will be trained in multidisciplinary seagoing oceanography, meteorology, marine science, and the use of ocean gliders. You will develop transferable skills in computer programming, numerical modelling, data analysis and visualization, and scientific communication and outreach.

Is this project right for you?

We seek someone with a good numerate physical science degree (e.g. physics, maths, natural sciences, engineering, environmental sciences, oceanography, meteorology).  You should have a strong interest in learning about how the climate system works, but you don’t need to have studied this before. We will provide all the necessary training as part of your PhD, for example in oceanography and biogeochemistry. Experience of a computer language such as Matlab or Python would be useful.

Funding:

This project is offered on a self-funding basis. It is open to applicants with funding or those applying to funding sources. Details of tuition fees can be found at http://www.uea.ac.uk/pgresearch/pgrfees.

A bench fee is also payable on top of the tuition fee to cover specialist equipment or laboratory costs required for the research. The amount charged annually will vary considerably depending on the nature of the project and applicants should contact the primary supervisor for further information about the fee associated with the project.