Postdoc in Heliospheric Plasma Physics (Solar Orbiter)

Paris Observatory - PSL; Meudon; Remote; EUR 35,000 - 54,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

44 days of annual leave & RTT

Remote-work options

Public transport coverage 75% + €300/m

Job summary

EU Satellite Centre (SatCen) in Meudon (Observatoire de Paris, LIRA) seeks a fixed-term researcher to analyse radio emissions from Solar Orbiter RPW data. You will develop automated methods to study type III bursts, derive electron velocity distributions at key phases, and compare with simulations to estimate scattering in the interplanetary medium.

The role requires knowledge of radio instrumentation, Python programming, and strong teamwork, with autonomy and initiative.

Qualifications

• Good knowledge of radio instrumentation.
• Good programming skills (Python).
• Strong communication and teamwork skills, autonomy and initiative.

Responsibilities

• Work with the catalogue of more than 15,000 type III radio bursts observed by Solar Orbiter's RPW instrument.
• Develop a method to automatically analyse the detailed time evolution of the emissions at different frequencies, deriving electron velocity distributions at the onset, peak and decay phases.
• Compare these distributions with numerical simulations of radio emission and use them to estimate wave-scattering effects in the interplanetary medium.

Skills

Radio instrumentation

Python programming

Communication

Teamwork

Tools

Python

Job description

Location: Observatoire de Paris (LIRA), Meudon, France
Contract: Fixed-term researcher contract (CDD), 6 months, full time
Start: 1 December 2026
Salary: €3,132 to €4,808 gross/month depending on experience
Deadline: 4 November 2026 (23:59)

Study how energetic electrons produced in solar flares are accelerated and fill the heliosphere, one of the key questions of the ESA Solar Orbiter mission. As these electron beams travel along interplanetary magnetic field lines, they generate Langmuir waves that are converted into radio waves. Analysing these emissions reveals the beams' properties (speed, number) and how radio waves scatter in the turbulent interplanetary medium.

Your role

• Work with the catalogue of more than 15,000 type III radio bursts observed by Solar Orbiter's RPW instrument
• Develop a method to automatically analyse the detailed time evolution of the emissions at different frequencies, deriving electron velocity distributions at the onset, peak and decay phases
• Compare these distributions with numerical simulations of radio emission and use them to estimate wave-scattering effects in the interplanetary medium

Profile

• Good knowledge of radio instrumentation
• Good programming skills (Python)
• Strong communication and teamwork skills, autonomy and initiative

Environment

You will join the Heliosphere and Astrophysical Plasmas team of LIRA at the Meudon site of the Observatoire de Paris, under Milan Maksimovic. The team is heavily involved in exploiting Solar Orbiter data, especially from the RPW radio and plasma waves experiment.

Benefits include:

• 44 days of annual leave and RTT
• remote-work options
• 75% public transport coverage plus a sustainable mobility allowance of up to €300