One PhD Fellowship is offered in the field of wildfire behavior characterization. The PhD candidate will support ongoing efforts to observe and model wildland fire dynamics using airborne remote sensing instrumentation, in-situ heat transfer measurements, state-of-the-art models, and advanced data analysis techniques. This PhD project includes field work as well as data analysis and modeling tasks.

The Project

The Fire Dynamics Lab at UPC participates in the Fire And Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE), an international, multi-agency, interdisciplinary collaborative effort let by the US Forest Service and designed to collect critical measurements of fuels, fire behavior, fire energy, meteorology, smoke, and fire effects, which will be used to evaluate and advance operationally-used fire and smoke models.

UPC has also partnered with San Jose State University (San Jose, California, USA) to develop, build, and deploy a multispectral airborne imaging system specifically designed to study wildfire dynamics. In addition to FASMEE, fire behavior observations have been acquired during prescribed fires, fire field experiments, and uncontrolled wildfires in collaboration with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Forest Service (USFS), and the US Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP). Furthermore, future deployments are planned for the next 5 years within the framework of FASMEE and other partner projects.

This recent work provides excellent opportunities to support wildfire behavior studies through the development of novel data analysis workflows and the integration of these observations into models. Further advancing the fire behavior characterization tools available at present, as well as merging observational data with fire behavior models, has the potential to considerably extend the existing capabilities to characterize, understand, and predict fire behavior as well as its relationship with topography, weather, and vegetation.

The Position

The selected PhD candidate will join our team to pursue the following goals:

• Process multispectral aerial imagery to derive quantitative estimates of fire behavior metrics.
• Extend current data processing capabilities to overcome existing challenges.
• Investigate the integration of fire behavior observations into models.
• Analyze and validate the resulting fire data products in conjunction with other ground, airborne, and spaceborne observations.
• Analyze and contextualize the observed fire dynamics in conjunction with topography, weather, and vegetation information.

Required Skills

The successful candidate will have:

• A MSc. Degree in Engineering, Physics, or a similar field with an excellent academic record.
• A strong scientific programming background, preferably with previous experience in data analysis and/or earth system modeling.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Willingness to work in a highly-collaborative interdisciplinary team and interact with international collaborators.
• A strong interest in learning new concepts and developing new skills.

Previous experience in remote sensing, geospatial data analysis, and/or fire behavior models will be valued positively.

Contract characteristics

Full time, 4-year fixed-term contract.

Annual gross salary: 18.181 - 24.349 €

Application Procedure

Please send your Cover Letter and your CV to Dr. Valero (mm.valero@upc.edu) using the email subject "PhD Application: Data and Model Fusion for Wildfire Behavior Characterization".

Candidates are encouraged to apply early as additional opportunities may become available before the application deadline.