Graduate Research Scientist intern

Analytical Mechanics Associates•Remote - New Jersey, NJ

1d•$28 - $34•Remote

About The Position

AMA is seeking a graduate-level Research Scientist intern to support cryospheric remote-sensing research at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), contributing to a feasibility study that integrates multi-angle polarimetry, radiative transfer modeling, and machine-learning-based retrievals to advance instrument concept development for future Earth-observing missions. The hourly rate for this position is $27.69-$33.85 determined by level of education and relevant skills and experience. Remote work is an option.

Requirements

Bachelor’s in Physics, Atmospheric Science, or a related field.
Strong Python skills, including NumPy and SciPy.
Experience with a machine learning library such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
Ability to work with large multi-dimensional scientific datasets.
Experience with radiative transfer modeling; familiarity with vector RT codes such as AccuRT, libRadtran, SCIATRAN, or VLIDORT.
Ability to work independently and document code and methodology clearly.
Strong written and oral communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Background in atmospheric or cryospheric remote sensing.
Experience or coursework related to optical instrument design or polarimetry.
Familiarity with polarimetric measurements and their applications.
Interest in contributing to a peer-reviewed publication.
Enthusiasm for instrument concept development for current and future Earth-observing missions.

Responsibilities

Conduct a feasibility analysis for a passive multi-angle polarimeter designed to retrieve sea ice albedo and related cryospheric variables.
Extend the published RTM-SciML framework (Zhou et al., 2023, 2025) to incorporate polarized radiance and dense angular sampling.
Produce a synthetic training dataset of top-of-atmosphere Stokes vectors using a vector radiative transfer model across representative sea ice surface conditions.
Train and evaluate ML models to retrieve broadband shortwave albedo and melt pond fraction.
Quantify retrieval performance across spectral, angular, and polarimetric configurations using held-out synthetic test data.
Document trade-offs between spectral range, angular sampling, and polarimetric capability.
Deliver recommendations for multi-angle polarimeter instrument design.
Prepare clear documentation, written reports, and oral presentations summarizing methods and findings.