About the project
What drives Jupiter’s powerful jets and giant storms? Use advanced three-dimensional climate simulations to explore how clouds and turbulence shape giant planets’ weather. Develop skills in atmospheric physics and scientific computing, with access to high-performance computing facilities, international collaborations and overseas research visits, in Southampton’s growing Planetary Climate Physics group.
Explaining how Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere generates and sustains its powerful jets and giant storms remains a major challenge in planetary science. This project aims to move beyond reproducing the appearance of these features to testing the physical mechanisms behind them through quantitative comparisons with observations.
This PhD will use OASIS, a computational model of planetary climates, to investigate how cloud processes, turbulence and atmospheric circulation interact on Jupiter and Jupiter-like planets. You will perform high-resolution, three-dimensional simulations to explore how turbulent motions organise into large-scale weather patterns.
Research questions include how cloud physics contributes to the development of storms, what controls the global distribution of ammonia, and how atmospheric circulation changes when giant planets receive more energy from their stars. You will also assess how increasing spatial resolution affects simulated turbulence and agreement with observations.
The intended outcomes are improved simulations of giant-planet atmospheres, stronger tests of the mechanisms driving Jupiter’s weather, and a clearer understanding of how these mechanisms operate under different planetary conditions. These findings will help explain the diversity of giant-planet climates and test how well climate models capture atmospheric physics beyond Earth.
You will join the new and growing Planetary Climate Physics group at the University of Southampton. The project offers access to high-performance computing facilities, international collaborations and visits to partner research groups abroad, alongside advanced training in atmospheric dynamics, numerical modelling, scientific computing and data analysis.
The School of Physics & Astronomy is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
