Post-doctoral On Identification of Affected Areas

The climate needs bright minds. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) addresses crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts and sustainable development. It is one of the world's leading research institutions in its field and offers natural and social scientists from around the world an inspiring environment for excellent interdisciplinary research.
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**Post-doctoral position on Identification of affected areas** (M/F/d)**
- (Position number: 60-2024 Identification of affected areas)
- in the field of impact attribution, starting as soon as possible.
- The position **is funded for** 3 years. Remuneration is in accordance with the German public tariff scheme (TV-L Brandenburg), salary group E 13. This is a full-time position with a weekly working time of 40 hours per week. The position can be filled on a part-time basis.

**Background**:

- Quantifying the contribution of observed levels of climate change to ongoing changes in natural and human systems such as agriculture, forest, coast and cities is essential to better understand societies‘ sensitivities to future climate change, inform climate litigation cases and develop intervention options. The societal impacts of extreme weather events with changing intensities and frequencies present a major component of today‘s impacts of climate change. However, the attribution of damages, displacement or fatalities associated with weather extremes to long-term climate change is still constrained by the sparse observational data documenting the extent of the areas affected by the hazard. Given new sensors and satellite missions, we aim to derive high quality estimates of areas affected by extreme events such as floods, tropical cyclones or wildfires from remote sensing. The information will be used to evaluate climate impact models that could be used to estimate the change in these areas induced by climate change.

**Key responsibilities**:

- You will strengthen our cross-sectoral impact modeling team by complementing existing fragmented information on the spatial extent of historical events with extents derived by means of state-of-the art remote sensing approaches. Thereby, you will focus on both coastal and inland inundation extents, wildfires, crop failure and tree mortality. You will exploit data products from optical as well as radar systems e.g. from MODIS, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3, to build an observation-based dataset of event extents with outstanding spatial and temporal coverage.

**Requirements**:
- Understanding in machine learning approaches
- Experience in the analysis of satellite data
- Advanced skills in scientific computing

**We expect**:

- Ability to work independently and on your own initiative
- Methodical and systematic approach
- Structured and goal-oriented thinking
- Capacity to familiarise yourself quickly with new topics
- Creativity and openness to new approaches
- High level of competence in oral and written English
- Reliability, engagement, and a high level of motivation
- Capacity for teamwork

**We offer**:

- The chance to work on the forefront of a dynamic research field highly relevant to societal and political processes such as the IPCC assessment cycle,
- The chance to be part of an engaged, interdisciplinary team,
- Stimulating working environment in an internationally recognised research institute on Potsdam's beautiful, historic Telegrafenberg campus, a short commuting distance from Berlin,
- Flexi-time and mobile working (up to 50% of your hours),
- Collective pay scheme and associated benefits as well as a subsidized travel card or Deutschland-Ticket Job. - For further information or to discuss the position please contact Dr. Inga Sauer.