Fully funded PhD Studentship: Institute of Engineering Surveying & Space Geodesy (IESSG)
Reference : ENG199
Closing Date : Monday 02 June 2008
Use of PSI for the Enhancement of Vertical Land Movement Measurements at Tide Gauges in the UK
Applications are invited for a full-time PhD Studentship to investigate the ‘Use of PSI for the Enhancement of Vertical Land Movement Measurements at Tide Gauges in the UK’. The project, which is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), aims to investigate how a remote sensing technique called Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) can produce information relating to the relative changes in land level around the coast of the UK. This will be used in conjunction with an existing network of GPS and Absolute Gravity stations in order to help to obtain a picture of the average change in sea level around the coast of Great Britain which may be due to climate change.
The student will examine areas around 10 tide gauges using all available interferometric observations from 1997 to the present day. An additional element of the work will be the investigation of the use of artificial Corner Reflectors (CR) for future use at tide gauges through an analysis of an existing CR network in Nottinghamshire.
The student will be jointly supervised by staff from the IESSG at the University of Nottingham, the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), with day-to-day supervision provided by the IESSG. The student will be able to build on the work of other researchers in this area using PSI software developed by the IESSG and freely available software such as STaMPS. Commercially available software such as GAMMA will be available for comparison through BGS.
Students should have, or expect to obtain, at least a 2.1 undergraduate degree in surveying, mathematics, earth sciences and geophysics or a related numerate discipline. Experience in computer programming and satellite remote sensing will be an advantage.
This studentship provides a maintenance allowance rising from £16,000 per annum for 3 years – please note that this is tax free. It also covers tuition fees and an allowance for the additional costs of supporting the research work – travel to conferences, IT equipment, books etc. Due to funding restrictions, students must be UK or EU citizens who have been resident in the UK for the last 3 years. For full details of eligibility, please refer to the NERC Student Handbook (see: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/studentships/).
Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr A Sowter,
Email: Andrew.Sowter@Nottingham.ac.uk.
Applications, with a detailed CV and the names and addresses of two referees, should be sent to Dr A Sowter, Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Email: Andrew.Sowter@Nottingham.ac.uk.
Students are also asked to complete the University’s standard postgraduate application form (see: https://pgapps.nottingham.ac.uk/) and the NERC studentship application form (see: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/studentships/studenteligibility.doc
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