Global Water Resources Monitoring using Novel Remote Sensing and Land Modeling

KU Leuven (Belgium) and UMelbourne (Australia) are looking for 2 enthusiastic joint PhD researchers who will study total terrestrial water storage and how it changes in time and due to human water management. We will combine satellite data from gravimetry missions with process-based land surface modelling. The targeted gravimetry missions include the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-up mission (GRACE-FO). The main challenge is to differentiate between changes in groundwater, soil moisture, surface water, and snow in the GRACE observations through advanced data assimilation techniques.

The PhD researchers need to have a genuine interest in satellite-based remote sensing and modeling, as well as in water storage and fluxes. Both PhD students are expected to work both in Belgium and Australia, with one PhD student mainly based at KULeuven (and at least one year at UMelbourne), and the second PhD student mainly based at UMelbourne (and at least one ye...