POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER - Solar Coronal Physics - Boulder, Colorado at Southwest Research Institute

Who We Are:

The Department of Solar and Heliospheric Physics within SwRI’s Boulder office performs research, develops missions and instruments, and engages in outreach activities in solar and heliophysics, with particular specialties in high energy processes in the solar corona and their propagation through the middle corona into the heliosphere. We are currently developing new missions for spectroscopic imaging of flares, coronal mass ejections, active regions, and the solar wind in the lower and middle corona, as well as developing and applying new data analysis tools and techniques to support the science behind these projects. These projects span the electromagnetic spectrum from gamma, X-rays, and the extreme ultraviolet to visible and infrared and are the cutting edge of new observing capabilities.

Objectives of this Role:

• Develop new and advance existing solar coronal image processing and spectroscopic analysis techniques.
• Help build, calibrate, and test new remote sensing instrumentation for solar coronal imaging and spectroscopy.
• Under the supervision of project principal investigators, help to develop new missions, mission concepts, and data analysis tools and techniques for solar coronal remote sensing research.
• Carry out applied and fundamental research relevant to these projects.

Daily and Monthly Responsibilities:

• Learn cutting edge techniques of solar coronal imaging and spectroscopy; and prototype, develop, validate, and test software to carry out data processing and analysis of solar coronal observations.
• Under direct supervision, participate in mission and instrument development activities, including laboratory and/or field calibration and testing and development of flight software.
• Carry out applied and/or fundamental research using existing solar coronal observations and new mission data.
• Present progress and results within the project core development teams, at scientific conferences, and in peer-reviewed publications.

Requirements:

• Requires a PhD in Solar Physics, Astronomy/Astrophysics, Physics, Applied Physics, or related field. Applicants may be current students but must complete their degree prior to starting work.
• 0-3 years: Scientific analysis of solar remote sensing data.
• 0-3 years: Scientific software design or implementation in a data analysis environment such as Python or IDL.
• Interest in or laboratory experience with solar remote sensing instrumentation.
• Interest in or experience with X-ray, extreme ultraviolet, and/or infrared solar image and/or spectroscopic data.
• Interest in or prior experience developing solar data calibration software.