Masters Intern - Global Snow Modeling

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

16h • Remote

About The Position

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.
Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.
The Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate (EBSD) leads critical research in four areas: Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Molecular Sciences, and Global Change. Our vision is to develop a predictive understanding of biological and Earth systems in transition. We aim to understand energy and material flows within the integrated Earth system; to understand, predict, and control the response of biosystems to environmental and/or genomic changes; and to Model the Earth system from the subsurface to the atmosphere.
The Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences (ACES) Division comprises multidisciplinary teams working to advance the predictive knowledge of Earth systems. The ACES team includes researchers at every career stage who collaborate across disciplines to address some of the most pressing challenges which are critical to ensure a robust U.S. energy system. Scientists in ACES provide their expertise to major sections of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility, the Atmospheric System Research program, and the Earth & Environmental Systems Modeling program.
The Atmosphere, Climate, and Earth Science Division is looking for an intern for the spring or summer of 2026. The candidate will contribute to the emerging field of global snow modeling through evaluating and improving snowpack simulations in DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The internship is a remote opportunity for a duration of 12 to 16 weeks. The candidate will gain valuable experience and transferable knowledge and skills in Earth system science, running, evaluating and improving Earth System Models, high-performance computing, contributing to large open-source projects on GitHub, and science communication. The expected outcome involves a peer-reviewed publication after the successful completion of this project.

Requirements

• Candidates must be matriculated/enrolled in a Master's program at an accredited college or university.
• Minimum GPA of 3.0 is required.

Nice To Haves

• Working towards a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Atmosphere Science, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Remote Sensing, or a related field.
• Passionate about snow hydrology.
• Have experience with or strong interest in the following: remote sensing, land surface modeling, high-performance computing, and open-source workflows.
• Proficient with at least one programming language (e.g., Python, R, Julia, MATLAB, C++, Fortran, etc.).
• Prior research experience is preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

• Collect remote sensing data and evaluate snowpack simulations in E3SM
• Improve snowpack parameterizations in E3SM
• Run E3SM simulations to test model performance and answer scientific questions
• Present model improvement and research findings at internal seminars

Benefits

• Employees are offered an employee assistance program and business travel insurance.
• Employees are eligible for the company funded pension plan and 401k savings plan, once eligibility requirements are met.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern