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Notice of Scholarship to study for a PhD in Meteorology in New Zealand
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The Meteorological Service of New Zealand (MetService) and Victoria
University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand, are seeking a suitable
candidate to carry out research in Meteorology leading to the award
of a PhD degree.


Brief Project Description
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The project is to research and develop novel techniques for producing
medium term (day 3-10) probabilistic spot forecasts from ensemble
prediction systems (EPS).

Errors in numerical weather prediction models arise from two sources:
deficiencies in the models themselves, and inaccurate initial
conditions. Historically, improvements in modelling physical
processes and increased computing power allowing finer resolution
have reduced the first source of error. In the last 10 years or so
the second source of error has been addressed by running multiple
versions of a model, each starting from slightly different initial
conditions. The set, or ensemble, of results from this modelling
system may be used to gain an idea of the range of possible outcomes.

The simplest approach to presenting information from an ensemble is
to average the results across all the members. However considerable
extra forecast quality may be added by statistical post processing.
The exact nature of the processing is a matter of active research
and forms the basis for this project.

For the successful candidate this is an ideal opportunity to become
familiar with state of the art tools for analysing and predicting
weather elements.

This work is funded by Technology New Zealand (http://www.technz.co.nz)
and will contribute to MetService's weather prediction research
programme.

Supervision, computing and data facilities
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The supervisors of this project are Dr James McGregor, VUW and Tony
Simmers, MetService.

It is anticipated that the candidate will spend part of their time at
MetService and part at the university. MetService and VUW are both
situated in Wellington in close proximity to each other (a comfortable
ten minute walk).

The candidate will have access to excellent computing facilities.
MetService operate a Beowulf cluster of Linux workstations and a variety
of Unix workstations are available at VUW.

Comprehensive real-time and archived meteorological data are available at
both MetService and VUW.

Scholarship
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The successful applicant will enrol for the degree of PhD at Victoria
University of Wellington. The total value of the scholarship (including
all fees) is $NZ25,000 per annum.

(It should be noted that fees are approx. $4-5,000 per annum for students
from New Zealand and countries with reciprocal fees arrangements.
Students from other countries are required to pay higher overseas student
fees.)

For more general information on study at VUW see
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/home/study/index.html


Applicants
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Applicants should have a first class or second class (division 1)
honours degree, or equivalent, in meteorology, mathematics and/or
physics. Some experience in statistical data analysis together with
programming experience in Fortran and/or C and familiarity with the
Unix/Linux operating system is highly desirable.

Interested individuals are asked to send a CV, three letters of
recommendation, and academic transcripts to the addresses below.


Memorandum of Understanding between MetService and VUW
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MetService and VUW signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding in 1998
which has promoted closer links between the two organisations and has
facilitated closer cooperation on research initiatives and data exchange.


Other relevant Web sites
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Further information about MetService can be found at
http://www.metservice.com
and the School of Earth Sciences, VUW at http://www.geo.vuw.ac.nz


Email Contact
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Dr James McGregor, VUW j.mcgregor@...
Tony Simmers, MetService tony.simmers@...


Postal Addresses and Phone Numbers
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Dr James McGregor
School of Earth Sciences
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington
New Zealand
Phone no: +64 4 463 5278
Fax no: +64 4 463 5186

Tony Simmers
Meteorological Service of New Zealand
PO Box 722
Wellington
New Zealand
Phone no: +64 4 470 0751
Fax no: +64 4 473 5231