Drought and fire danger monitoring post-doctoral fellowship at CNRM F/M

As a public weather and climate expert, Météo-France is at your side to contribute to your day-to-day safety and help you make the best decisions in a changing climate. Faced with dangerous weather episodes that are even more intense and more frequent as a result of climate change, our missions in the service of your safety are crucial. We mobilize our expertise and our scientific and technological excellence to help you anticipate and adapt to challenging weather and climate phenomena.

Find us online: https://meteofrance.com/carte-didentite-de-meteo-france

Joining Météo France means joining a multi-site organization, located in France, overseas, etc. Météo-France is organized into central and inter-regional divisions. Below is a presentation of the department you could join :

CNRM has developed the ISBA land surface model within SURFEX, an operational modelling platform that can simulate terrestrial water and carbon fluxes. ISBA can be coupled with various atmospheric and hydrological models and incorporates a global land data assimilation system (LDAS-Monde). LDAS-Monde uses an extended Kalman filter to assimilate satellite data and analyse soil moisture and vegetation biomass at spatial resolutions ranging from 1 to 25 km. Initially, the postdoctoral fellow will operate LDAS over Europe using atmospheric forcing from the ARPEGE numerical weather prediction (NWP) model. Recent in situ observations of live fuel moisture content (LFMC) will then be used to train a neural network capable of simulating LFMC across Europe, together with other drought indices. The assimilation of several satellite leaf area index data streams will be evaluated. The LFMC product will then be validated using independent in situ LFMC observations and verified using existing gridded LFMC datasets. The results will be published in open literature.

The work carried out by the CNRM’s VEGEO (Vegetation, Water and Geophysics) team focuses on four complementary areas:
(1) Modelling and remote sensing of wildfire danger and monitoring of fire emissions;
(2) Data assimilation to improve representation of the soil-plant system in the hydrological cycle and the impact of climate warming;
(3) Enhancing observation of land surfaces and data usage;
(4) Enhancing observation of atmospheric aerosols and data usage.

Why join us ?

Embark on a stimulating adventure in the service of all, alongside men and women committed to the daily challenges posed to our society by the weather and climate. And enjoy the following benefits: flexible working hours, RTT, telecommuting, administrative restaurant or luncheon voucher, 75% contribution to public transport, contribution to health insurance, sports and cultural associations depending on the site (climbing, gym, pottery, theater, etc.).

Other benefits await you, come and discover them !

GreenEO is a Horizon Europe project which uses satellite data, environmental modelling and digital tools to promote sustainable land use across Europe. In the face of mounting environmental challenges such as urban expansion, pollution, biodiversity loss and climate-related risks, GreenEO aims to provide policymakers, land managers and communities with actionable information. The project supports the goals of the European Green Deal, particularly with regard to clean air, biodiversity protection, and sustainable land management. GreenEO's primary objective is to provide enhanced satellite-based environmental data to promote sustainable nature conservation practices in four competing land use sectors: cities, agricultural areas, semi-natural and natural forests, and ecosystems. By combining new Earth Observation (EO) products, digital infrastructures, and modelling capabilities with advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, inverse modelling techniques, and atmospheric and land surface models, GreenEO will provide new environmental information and stakeholder engagement practices. These will support the implementation of specific endpoints under the Zero Pollution and Biodiversity aspects of the European Green Deal.

The work carried out by the CNRM’s VEGEO (Vegetation, Water and Geophysics) team focuses on four complementary areas :

• Modelling and remote sensing of wildfire danger and monitoring of fire emissions;

• Data assimilation to improve representation of the soil-plant system in the hydrological cycle and the impact of climate warming;

• Enhancing observation of land surfaces and data usage;

• Enhancing observation of atmospheric aerosols and data usage.

Additional Information :

• This position is open to people with disabilities

• Office hours

• Fixed-term contract of 12 months (option to extend for 12 months)

• Remote work available: 1 or 2 days per week

You must hold a Ph.D. and be familiar with at least two of the following topics : deep learning, data assimilation, land surface modelling and remote sensing.

You must also have experience programming in Python for data analysis and working in a Linux environment,

Being fluent in French is not required.

Application deadline: 25/10/2026

Email addresses for further information: jean-christophe.calvet@meteo.fr