Wildfire Impacts on Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases and Reactive Trace Species over Southern Europe

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity at CNR-ISAC (Italy)

Wildfire Impacts on Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases and Reactive Trace Species over Southern Europe

Host Institution: Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Bologna, Italy

Supervisors: Dr. Nora Zannoni and Dr. Paolo Cristofanelli

We invite expressions of interest from postdoctoral researchers interested in jointly developing a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) proposal.

The fellowship will focus on investigating the impacts of wildfires on greenhouse gases (GHGs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other climate-relevant trace species over Southern Europe and the Mediterranean region.

Recent extreme wildfire events have demonstrated the capability of biomass-burning emissions to influence atmospheric composition on continental and hemispheric scales. However, significant uncertainties remain regarding their impacts on GHG variability, reactive gases, atmospheric chemistry, and regional carbon budgets.

The project will exploit observations from the Mt. Cimone Observatory (CMN, 2165 m a.s.l.; https://cimone.isac.cnr.it/), one of Europe's leading high-altitude atmospheric monitoring stations.

Located in the Northern Apennines and strategically positioned in the Mediterranean region, Mt. Cimone is particularly suitable for investigating long-range transport processes and large-scale atmospheric variability.

The observatory contributes to major international atmospheric research infrastructures and programmes, including:

• ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System)

• ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure)

• AGAGE (Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment)

• WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)

The station hosts long-term measurements of greenhouse gases, atmospheric pollutants, VOCs and aerosol properties, providing a unique platform for studying wildfire impacts on atmospheric composition.

Potential Research Topics: the final scientific focus will be defined together with the selected candidate according to their expertise and interests.

Potential research directions include:

• Wildfire impacts on atmospheric CH₄, CO₂, VOCs and other trace species;

• Source attribution of biomass-burning signals;

• Integration of atmospheric observations with wildfire emission inventories;

• Integration of Mt. Cimone observations with satellite and Earth observation products;

• Atmospheric transport analyses and long-range transport studies;

• Stable carbon isotopes in CO2 and CH4;

• Innovative approaches for identifying and quantifying biomass-burning influences.

Training and Research Environment: the fellowship aims to promote strong mutual knowledge transfer between the fellow and the host institution.

The selected researcher will benefit from:

• Access to unique long-term atmospheric datasets;

• Participation in ICOS, ACTRIS, AGAGE and WMO-GAW activities;

• Training in atmospheric observations and data analysis;

• Opportunities to develop interdisciplinary research skills;

• Integration within an international collaborative research network.

Candidate Profile: we welcome applications from researchers with backgrounds in one or more of the following areas:

• Atmospheric chemistry and physics;

• Environmental sciences;

• Earth observation and remote sensing;

• Environmental engineering;

• Data science applied to environmental systems;

• Meteorology;

• Related disciplines.

Experience in atmospheric composition measurements, GHGs, VOCs, wildfire emissions, atmospheric transport, isotope applications, modelling, remote sensing or advanced data analysis is considered an asset but is not mandatory.

Contacts:

• Dr. Nora Zannoni (nora.zannoni@cnr.it; ORCID: 0000-0003-2721-5362)

• Dr. Paolo Cristofanelli (paolo.cristofanelli@cnr.it; ORCID: 0000-0001-5666-9131)

Interested researchers are invited to send a CV, publication list and a brief statement of research interests.