Missions

Since 2019, Météo-France has developed expertise in detecting and forecasting sargassum stranding in the French Antilles. These activities, which are recognized as being of public interest, led to the establishment of an institutional mission in 2023, making Météo-France a unique European public service dedicated to this topic.
This institutional mission focuses on three areas: satellite detection, drift modelling and the production of stranding risk bulletins. CNRM is responsible for the first of these axes, in particular via the Centre for Research at Lannion. Detection is now state-of-the-art, with the use of satellites with complementary characteristics (high spatial resolution, geostationary), providing better spatial and temporal coverage of the North Atlantic.

However, the observation of Sargassum mats is limited by cloud cover and the presence of aerosols, which constitute a major constraint, particularly in the bed growth zone, which is currently poorly or unobserved and associated with high uncertainties as to the presence of Sargassum. This limits the ability of seasonal forecasting models, such as NEMO-Sarg, to identify the life cycle and drift of Sargassum in these areas.
Since 2022, the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite has been operating in geostationary orbit, providing continuous observation of the entire North Atlantic. It embarks the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI), which has the minimum characteristics required for Sargassum observation. This major advance in satellite observation enables us to monitor the entire basin on an infra-daily scale, and to obtain sufficient sampling to analyze the development of Sargassum beds and their diurnal drift. Recent developments have also made it possible to detect aerosols from MTG-FCI using the iAerus-GEO model.
The aim of the position is to improve seasonal simulations of sargassum bank growth and drift by exploiting data from MTG-FCI detection.

Activités

- Development, evaluation and validation of the MTG-FCI detection algorithm, including aerosols, and production of a database (detection indices, drift calculation). The development will be carried out in collaboration with the other members of the project.

- Development of a composite product combining GOES and MTG data at kilometer resolution.
- Integration of MTG observations into the NEMO-Sarg model.
- Analysis of the contribution of the data on a regional scale, particularly in areas where Sargassum is growing.
- Production of seasonal simulations to meet the needs of the institutional Sargasso mission.
- Scientific collaboration with French (ANR SargAlert) and international (GLIMR project, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) partners.

Compétences

Technical and scientific skills :
- PhD in one of the following fields: spatial remote sensing; measurement physics/data processing; applied mathematics or related ;
- Good knowledge of scientific programming (Python, Fortran) as well as Linux skills;
- An interest in transdisciplinary projects involving observations and modeling is encouraged;
- Scientific communication skills (written and oral) in English are essential ;

Other skills :
- Good organizational skills
- Ability to work as part of a team

Contexte de travail

The National Centre for Meteorological Research (CNRM) is the research department of Météo-France, based in Toulouse, France (http://www.cnrm.meteo.fr).
The recruited research scientist will integrate the climate group at CNRM, specifically the team responsible for analyzing the variability of the climate system in the context of the ANR SAMOUSSA (Satellite-Assisted Monitoring and Oceanic Understanding System for Sargassum in the Atlantic ocean) . They will work closely with:
• The team developing the CNRM Earth System Model (CNRM-ESM), which includes components for the ocean (NEMO) and ocean biogeochemical processes (PISCES);
• The Ocean team at the Centre for Satellite Meteorology Studies (CEMS), specialized in Sargassum detection from space;
• The VEGEO team, which developed the iAerus-GEO algorithm for aerosol detection;
• The LEGOS laboratory, which developed the NEMO-Sarg module dedicated to Sargassum simulation.