Scientist - Surface Characteristics

Job Title

Scientist - Surface Characteristics

Location

MD US (Primary)

Category

General Laborer, Scientist

Job Type

Full-Time

Compensation Minimum (USD)

Compensation Maximum (USD)

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Minimum Citizenship Status Required

U.S. Citizen

Security Clearance Required

None

Job Description

Job Title: Scientist – Surface Characteristics

• Employment Category: Full-Time/Regular
• Location: NCWCP College Park, MD
• Travel: Some travel may be required both locally and domestically by car or plane.
• Security Clearance: None
• Citizenship: U.S.
• Salary: Depending on Experience

 

Job Description:

STC is seeking highly motivated scientists across all levels to support scientific research, application development, and product support and validation for remote sensing of land surface characteristics, surface ice characteristics, and active fires. These efforts support the Surface Moisture, Surface Temperature, Vegetation, and Fires Geophysical Product Categories in the NESDIS Level 1 Requirements document, and include the activities of the Fire, Land Applications, Land Product Development STAR Science Teams.

 

The STAR Fire Science Team performs activities in support of the NESDIS Wildland Fire

Program. Anticipated work includes, but may not be limited to

• operational product development, verification, and maintenance
• proving ground and testbed activities,
• contributing to product visualization and distribution systems development
• post-processing of data to science quality datasets and their analysis
• the suite of geophysical variables is expected to expand from the current active fire detection and characterization products to pre- and post-fire products.

 

The Land Applications Team develops and operationalizes satellite data products of surface

moisture and vegetation conditions. Specifical data products include - soil moisture,

evapotranspiration, surface type, vegetation health indices, and drought monitoring.

 

The Land Product Development STAR Science team supports the operational Vegetation Index

(VI) and Green Vegetation Fraction (GVF) products. The supporting tasks will include:

• current product monitoring, routine evaluation, algorithm improvement and software upgrades
• migration support to the cloud computing environment
• new algorithm/product development, the climatological impact study of the VI and GVF data, and user engagement activities
• consistency analysis will be performed between JPSS and GOES-R-based vegetation data for producing a blended vegetation product set, in particular; and collaboration with NWP (EMC) counterparts will be scheduled for model applications of the vegetation product.

Job Requirements

The ability to develop and maintain science applications in cloud-based operating environments

is required in support of the NOAA-NESDIS 5-year plan to migrate to a cloud-based production

and development environment. The selected candidate shall be proficient in programming in FORTRAN, C , and/or Python.

 

Education:

Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Astronomy, Atmospheric Sciences, Chemistry, Climatology, Environmental, Geology, Materials Science, Meteorology, Oceanography, Physics, Space Applications, or related field.

We are equal opportunity/affirmative action employers, committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under state or local law.