Climate Scientist

British Antarctic Survey (BAS)

Climate Scientist

BAS 26/82

Contract type Fixed-Term Contract, 30 months

Location BAS Cambridge

Salary £42,688 - £46,957 per annum, pro rata

Closing date 04 November 2026, 23:55

Interview date 17 November 2026

Starting date 01 February 2027

Purpose

You’ll be joining our Atmosphere, Ice, & Climate (AIC) team to work on a new project Rain on Antarctic Sea Ice and Its Impacts (ROASII). This project will provide new understanding and quantification of anticipated increases in rainfall and its effect on Antarctic sea ice. Ongoing climate warming is expected to drive major changes in the Southern Ocean environment, including more frequent rainfall and air temperatures above freezing. Warmer and wetter conditions increase the likelihood of melt ponds forming on Antarctic sea ice. Melt ponds would accelerate Antarctic sea ice summer decay, impacting multiple oceanic, glaciological, and ecological systems in the Southern Hemisphere, enhancing polar amplification, and influencing global climate. Yet, there is a clear lack of understanding of, first, how rainfall will change in the future and, second, how it will impact sea ice.

You’ll help us to deliver the BAS contribution to this work, which will focus primarily on using models and observations to quantify the present-day occurrences of rainfall over Antarctic sea ice and enhance our understanding of the processes responsible for this, as well as develop realistic projections of rainfall over Antarctic sea ice for the future. Within the role, there will be opportunities to develop your teamwork skills as you collaborate with scientists from BAS and the Universities of Leeds and Reading, as well as international peers. Other scientists involved in the project will work on improving the representation of the effects of rain in a sea ice model and use it to evaluate the impact of rainfall on the formation of melt ponds and Antarctic sea ice, and future changes. You will be able to benefit from the many training and development opportunities that UKRI and BAS have to offer.

Current projects the team are working on include ExtAnt (Drivers and Impacts of Extreme Weather in Antarctica; https://extant.ac.uk), PICANTE (Processes, Impacts, and Changes of ANTarctic Extreme Weather; https://cpom.org.uk/picante/), PolarRES (Polar Regions in the Earth System; https://polarres.eu), SURFEIT (Surface Fluxes in Antarctica; https://surfeit.ac.uk), and Antarctic-CORDEX (COrdinated Regional Downscaling EXperiment; https://climate-cryosphere.org/antarctic-cordex/). ExtAnt, PICANTE, and SURFEIT are investigating Antarctic extreme events and their impacts and therefore have a lot of synergies with ROASII. PolarRES and Antarctic CORDEX focus on producing state-of-the-art regional climate model (RCM) simulations, which the ROASII project will use to quantify the present-day occurrences of rainfall over Antarctic sea ice.

Duties

• Compare rain and snowfall characteristics over Antarctic sea ice from RCM datasets with observations, especially from cloud profiling radar products, and identify the best performing model dataset.
• Use the best performing RCM dataset to quantify present-day occurrences of rainfall (and snowfall) over Antarctic sea ice.
• Use the RCM and reanalysis datasets and innovative statistical techniques to determine the synoptic atmospheric processes and modes of atmospheric variability linked to rain on sea ice events.
• Identify a subset of global climate models (GCMs) to derive improved projections of rainfall over Antarctic sea ice up to 2100.
• Attend and contribute to project meetings and relevant international science conferences.
• Lead the writing of scientific research papers.

Skills, Qualifications, and Experience

Essential

• PhD in atmospheric sciences, geosciences, or another relevant subject.
• Experience analysing and visualising different climate datasets, including from model simulations, observations and reanalysis.
• Good understanding of climate/meteorology.
• Excellent numerical skills with a strong understanding of statistics.
• Proficient in written and spoken English.
• Ability to show initiative and to tackle problems independently.
• Able to work as part of a team but also able to work independently.

Desirable

• Experience using cloud profiling radar products.
• Good understanding of Antarctic climate/meteorology.
• Track record of publishing in quality peer-reviewed literature.
• Ability to work collaboratively with researchers at other institutions, particularly internationally.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

Employees applying for any opportunity which may mean being away from your substantive role for a temporary period of time, please refer to the UKRI Internal Movement Guidance for further information in the first instance. If you are made an offer, please ensure you liaise with your Line Manager and your HR Team as soon as possible in order that implications of any move are clear and understood, prior to a move taking place.