Required documents

• Letter of application highlighting relevant background, qualifications, interest areas, desired internship period and expected achievement at end of internship (maximum 1 page)
• Curriculum vitae
• Optional: list of publications, posters or talks.

List of potential work tasks

• Main topics: support development of projects on climate data visualization (ClimVis Europe) and urban climatology (B.Green) – see background information below
• Investigate funding possibilities from diverse set of sources and help prepare funding applications involving multiple partners
• Support publications and screen literature to create profound overview of certain topics related to meteorology and climatology
• Conduct data analysis related to meteorological or climate datasets with appropriate technical means
• Communicate with relevant stakeholders, SEI colleagues and external experts
• General: support ongoing projects or preparations of ideas within CEA team and support other work-related tasks on demand, mainly related to meteorological-climatological topics.

Who we are looking for

• Education and/or strong interest and experience: meteorology or climatology or related study field such as geography with devotion, knowledge and/or specialization in meteorology/climatology
• Study level: internships are generally open to everyone, but priority is given to motivated matriculated university students for whom an internship is either part of the curriculum or thesis project
• Technical skills: programming skills strongly beneficial to analyse larger datasets
• Fluency in spoken and written English
• Optional: language skills in Estonian or another Baltic language to conduct user-related work tasks in a local language
• Optional: skills in web design and data visualization.

Funding

SEI Tallinn only offers unpaid internships. Internship candidates are expected to be fully funded and insured by external sources for the full duration of the internship. SEI Tallinn does not provide housing and does not assist in finding accommodation.

Background on ClimVis

Climatic changes in average and extreme weather conditions are increasingly manifesting worldwide and projected to further exacerbate in the coming decades, impacting patterns of temperature, precipitation and other climate elements, as well as occurrences of extreme events such as heat and cold waves, floods and droughts. The named developments and events strongly influence almost all socio-economic and environmental sectors and concern a wide range of interest groups. Timely climate information at various spatial scales, specifically at the local level, is crucial to manage and optimize adaptation and mitigation measures and decreasing socio-economic and ecological vulnerability to future climate change risks.

SEI Tallinn is preparing a project on creating a pan-European climate visualization tool, linking weather (current observations and weather forecasts) with climate (past observations and model projections). The tool aims to provide better access to past, present and future climate Information, which is needed for many non-expert users. We plan for an intuitively accessible and interactive tool providing transient, comprehensible, meaningful and eye-catching visualizations on climatic developments, reliable and up-to-date content and regionally (locally) relevant information in an accessible language. A related pilot project (ClimVis Europe) will soon be finished while we start to prepare the project consortium and content for a larger-scale (tool-building) project.

Background on Urban Climatology

Climate change hits cities harder than rural areas due to additional warming by surface sealing, lack of ventilation, anthropogenic heat and generally less reflection of incoming short-wave radiation. Furthermore, climate change increases the chance of urban flash floods due to more short-term high-intensity convective precipitation events characterized by large spatial differences within city boundaries. Both aspects are most problematic in the summer. Unfortunately, there is no specific local weather and climate information available in most cities besides point measurements by official weather stations located outside of the areas people usually live. Our goal is to establish smart real-time city-wide climate monitoring systems to assess the large variability of temperature, relative humidity and precipitation. We want to create a reliable information basis for citizens, decision makers and city planners to support urban climate assessments, risk management, city planning, adaptation and an increase in resilience.

Within the next months, SEI Tallinn will buy about 25 sensors to test an urban climate concept in Tallinn in the frame of the B.Green project. The proposed measurements will provide unprecedented insights into local climate characteristics in Estonia and may feed into a range of future applications useful for decision-making activities like those outlined above. Additionally, they will also provide prospects for rain radar calibration, highly localized weather forecasts and even future projections of heat stress and vulnerability. The sensor network will continue to operate after the project is finished (end of 2022) and collected data will be utilized to initiate future projects with stakeholders from city administrations.

Questions?

For inquiries about the position, please contact Andreas Hoy, Senior Expert Climate and Energy Programme (andreas.hoy@sei.org).