Air pollution and climate change are closely linked and represent two major environmental challenges. Climate change has been unequivocally attributed to anthropogenic emissions by the IPCC and climate forcing compounds are often co-emitted along with air pollutants.The main objective of the project is to investigate the impact of climate change on air quality using the MINNI Integrated Assessment Model. MINNI will be applied to study PM₂.₅, NO₂ and O₃, at the European scale (10 x 10 km² horizontal resolution), at the Italian scale (4 x 4km²) and also at the city scale, for specific case studies, e.g. Naples (1 x 1km²). The runs will initially focus on the recent past to estimate (and address) the bias between model results and, either ECMWF reanalysis and observations from both the air quality regulatory networks and the ACTRIS-RI network, with the latter helping to improve the model parametrization. Model runs will then focus on projections to 2050, in line with CMIP6 scenarios, including the species required by MINNI and with meteorological fields provided by either EURO-CORDEX or MED-CORDEX. Finally hazards that may be exacerbated by climate change will be also examined (e.g. wildfires and pollen emissions).The overall aim of the project is to support policies that address both climate change and air pollution. The project will be developed in close collaboration with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA).

The candidate is expected to have a solid background in physics, math, earth/environmental sciences or related disciplines, as well as experience in the analysis of observational data and/or numerical simulations. A training in atmospheric chemistry/physics, data analysis, atmospheric modelling, coding (e.g. in R, Fortran, matlab, python) are considered an asset.

Research activities will be hosted at the LARMA Lab of the Dept. of Eng. “Enzo Ferrari” (http://tiny.cc/larm) and at the Atmospheric Pollution Lab of ENEA (http://tiny.cc/fom7yz).LARMA works on atmospheric modelling and monitoring, collaborating with partners of the ACTRIS-RI and ICOS-RI. LARMA is also in charge of the Geophysical Observatory of Modena and of the local AERONET sun photometer.The Atmospheric Pollution lab focuses on meteorological and air quality simulations on European, national, local domains, and on novel methods for air quality monitoring. MINNI is one of the 11 models of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service for the air quality forecast at European level.