2018-09-21 9:00

Ref0069 / Deadline: November 21st, 2018 (14:00h CET)

Cerrado/Closed

Offer description

The "Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón" (CEFCA) invites applications for a staff position of "Data Management Astronomer – Multiband Analysis" for the development and management of the multi-filter astronomical data produced at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ).

CEFCA is an independent research institute located in Teruel, Spain, whose main responsibilities are the development, operation, management, and scientific exploitation of the OAJ, as well as the processing and storage of the data produced by its astronomical facilities. The main telescopes at the OAJ are the 83cm Javalambre Auxiliary Survey Telescope (JAST) and the 2.5m Javalambre Survey Telescope (JST).

JAST has a field of view (FoV) diameter of 2 deg and a panoramic camera, T80Cam, with a large format CCD of ~9.2k x 9.2k pix. The system T80Cam@JAST provides an effective FoV of 2 deg². Apart from a 20% of open time dedicated to competitive P.I. projects, since 2016 JAST is primarily devoted to conduct the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS), whose first 1000 deg² have been recently released to the community (DR1).

The data from T80Cam@JAST is being used also as a test-bench for the Javalambre Panoramic Camera (JPCam), foreseen to be installed at the JST in 2019. The system JPCam@JST provides a 4.7 deg² FoV with 14 CCDs identical to that of T80Cam. JPCam hosts a complete new set of 54 filters of ~140A width covering the whole optical spectral range plus two broader filters at the blue and red ends to carry out the Javalambre PAU (Physics of the Accelerated Universe) Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS). J-PAS will produce photo-spectra of hundreds of millions of astronomical objects with a wide range of applications in Astrophysics and Cosmology. In addition, since CEFCA is an official leading node of the Ground Segment OU-EXT of the ESA Euclid mission, JPCam@JST will conduct the Javalambre-Euclid Deep Imaging Survey in g-band (JEDIS-g) in the next years.

The Unit for Data Processing and Archiving (UPAD) at CEFCA is the department responsible for the design and implementation of the hardware and software to conduct the archiving and treatment of the OAJ images and the by-products from their analysis. To achieve this goal, the UPAD consists of astronomers, software engineers and hardware engineers working in close collaboration. The UPAD team is developing its own data reduction and data processing pipeline making use of common third-party open software like Python, Astromatic software (SExtractor, Scamp, SWarp, PSFEx) and photo-z codes like LePhare. Currently, the pipeline is in a very advanced version and has been used for the DR1 of J-PLUS. In addition, UPAD has also developed its own tools to provide easy and flexible access to the data produced at the OAJ. The UPAD is in continue development and improvement of the data processing tools to meet the stringent scientific requirements of projects like J-PLUS, J-PAS and JEDIS-g.

CEFCA is seeking for a post-doctoral astronomer with experience in spectral analysis of optical spectra (preferentially, of multiband photometry) to retrieve physical parameters of astronomical sources, mainly photometric redshifts from extragalactic objects. The successful candidate will join the UPAD team and will be responsible, in close collaboration with UPAD software and hardware engineers, for the development and implementation of the software needed for the massive spectral analysis of the data from the OAJ instruments. The selected candidate will also participate actively in the data management, in particular in the interface between the UPAD and the scientific users of the data.

The successful candidate will become full member of the J-PLUS and J-PAS collaborations. As an important benefit, after three years of contract in this position, the researcher will get the “builder” status for the J-PLUS and J-PAS collaborations, hence having the right to appear as author of all the publications of both projects. In addition, as CEFCA staff, the successful candidate will have the right to become Euclid member.

Duties

The successful candidate will join the UPAD team at CEFCA to:

• Be responsible of the coordination of the development and maintenance of the software to carry out spectral analysis of the multifilter data from the OAJ instruments, mainly to compute photometric redshifts.
• Develop and implement the necessary procedures to deal optimally with the 2D spatial variation of the transmission curves of the filters.
• Analyse and assess the results of spectral fitting tools, either publicly available third-party tools or in-house developed tools, to improve the quality of the products as well as the implementation of the needed software in the general pipeline of the OAJ data processing.
• Develop and implement procedures for automatic object classification using multifilter information in large astronomical datasets.
• Develop and implement the necessary quality checks to assess the reliability of the final products of the spectral analysis.
• Participate in the implementation of the procedures to publish in the most suitable way the outcomes from the spectral fitting tools.
• Participate in the development and maintenance of the archival of the data from raw data to processed data at different levels.
• Participate in the development and maintenance of tools to provide access to the data, in particular web access and Virtual Observatory tools.
• Participate in the commissioning of future OAJ instruments, in particular of JPCam.
• Participate in the implementation of third-party software in the OAJ pipelines, mainly software developed within the framework of the main CEFCA collaborations (e.g. J-PLUS, J-PAS, Euclid).

The successful candidate is expected to develop her/his scientific activity preferentially in one of the two CEFCA main research lines, namely Galaxy Formation and Evolution and Cosmology.

Valuable Knowledge and Experience

• Experience in the development and usage of astronomical spectral analysis techniques of multifilter optical data, in particular, but not limited, to photometric redshift codes.
• Experience in optical photometry, including automatic photometry (preferably with SExtractor), photometric calibration and synthetic photometry.
• Experience with the treatment of large astronomical datasets.
• Experience in programming with Python. Knowledge of programming in other languages like C, C++, or Fortran, will be an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in the implementation of software in a structured environment, in particular in the use of control version software like Git.
• Experience with relational databases, like e.g. MySQL.
• Experience working inside a software development team.
• Experience in big data analysis tools like machine learning tools.

Terms and conditions

About Teruel

CEFCA is a young research institute located in Teruel, Spain. While being relatively modest in size (pop. 35000 inhab.), the city of Teruel combines the services of a province capital with a rich historical and cultural heritage, what directly benefits its quality of life and made it a very family-friendly place. Teruel is situated at about 90 mins away driving from two major Spanish capitals like Zaragoza and Valencia, and about 60 mins from the Mediterranean coast (see here for further details).