Two PhD positions in the field of Physics of Oceans and Climate, one at IMAU, University Utrecht and one at NIOZ

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label Burse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:00 history_edu Cristian Ion
Inter-annual variability in the Indian Ocean is dominated by El Nio. Observations from a Dutch instrumented mooring array across the Mozambique Channel (MC) have shown large transport fluctuations with an abrupt increase in May 2006. The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) showed comparable behaviour but with a rapid shift 7 months later. In this program, satellite observations will be combined with the mooring data and model experiments to study the large-scale connections between the MC transport, ITF and El Nino. Aim is to understand the processes involved in the interannual variability and improve its predictability. Dedicated model experiments and analyses will be performed using a high-resolution global model.

PhD 1 will focus on the analysis of the field data in Mozambique Channel and east of Madagascar with the goal to unravel the dynamics of the South-West Indian Ocean current system. This research will be carried out in a four year project at Royal NIOZ, the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, located on Texel, the Netherlands. Active participation of the PhD candidate in ocean cruises is part of the project.



PhD 2 will combine analysis of satellite data with dedicated model experiments and use this to relate the field observations to El Nino and other larger-scale modes of variability. This research will be carried out in a four year project at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU) of Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
It is expected that the two PhD candidates will work in tandem.

About the organisation
The Faculty of Science consists of six departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information and Computing Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Mathematics. The Faculty is home to 3500 students and nearly 2000 staff and is internationally renowned for the quality of its research. The Faculty's academic programmes reflect developments in today's society.

The Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU) is an interfaculty research institute that focuses on the fundamental aspects of the climate system. Research is organized in five main themes: ice and climate, ocean circulation and climate, atmospheric physics and chemistry, atmospheric dynamics and boundary layer meteorology and Coastal and shelf sea dynamics. The IMAU includes some 15 faculty members, 15 postdocs and 30 PhD students. The graduate programme is organized in the Buys Ballot research school.