Description of Hosting Institution (UJA – Spain)

Jaén University (UJA) was created in 1993 and is in the Top 50 of the world’s best young universities according to THE (Times Higher Education). This ranking analyzes aspects such as teaching, research work, the university’s international outreach, or integration into industry. Besides, the UJA has received the distinction of Campus of International Excellence in the fields of Agrifood (CEIA3) and Climate Change (CamBio), plus it also leads the Andalusian CEI project on historical heritage PatrimoniUN10.

Jaén University has five faculties (Social and Legal Sciences; Humanities and Education Sciences; Health Sciences; Experimental Sciences and Social Work) and two higher polytechnic schools for engineering (Linares and Jaén). In turn, these centers are organized into 35 departments. It also has three Postgraduate educational centers (Doctorate School, Advanced Study Center in Modern Languages and Postgraduate Study Center).

In regards to its research, there are several specialized centers at Jaén University (https://www.ujaen.es/servicios/ofipi/uja-ri-expertise). Besides, the full picture of the over 100 UJA groups covers the following research fields of expertise: Agrifood (AGR); Biology (BIO); Health (CTS); Social Sciences, Business, Law (SEJ); Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics (FQM); Humanities (HUM); Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (RNM); Information and Communications Technology (TIC); and Engineering Production Technology (TEP).

As far this hosting offer is concerned, ANTONIO DAVID POZO VÁZQUEZ would be willing to host post-doctoral researchers that are eventually funded through the MSCA-IF 2021 call for applications to be part of the following UJA research team: https://matras.ujaen.es/en/index.php

Project description

Project Title: Improving WRF model short term solar radiation forecasting reliability based on local cloud data assimilation

This project aims to improve the capabilities of the WRF numerical weather prediction model to provide local accurate high spatial resolution (1 km) solar radiation (both direct and diffuse components) forecasts on time horizons up to 48 h. The focus will be in the local scale, aiming the model to provide accurate solar radiation forecast at plant scale. Main test facility will be the Univ. of Jaen campus, were the group have deployed a complete set of measuring instrument. A comprehensive evaluation of cloud forecast based on different WRF setups. Different microphysics and shortwave radiation schemes, as well as vertical levels configuration, will be evaluated to determine the best setup. Special attention will be paid to the cloud fraction estimates. Evaluation will be based satellite and local clouds characteristic measurements (ceilometer, sky camera images, etc..). As the main and innovative strategy, we propose to assimilate local cloud data into the WRF model. Initial 3-D cloud fields in WRF, immediately after the data assimilation cycles, will be modified (assimilated) according to local estimates of cloud characteristics derived from a ceilometer, sky cameras and satellite images (MSG).

Pre-application procedure

Interested applicants (PhD holders) should send their CV, Motivation letter and Summary of project proposal (250 words) to the UJA potential proposal supervisor (dpozo@ujaen.es) by the hosting offer deadline. Please, take into account that only candidates that meet the MSCA-IF 2021 application requirements according to the Funding & Tenders Portal (such as the so-called ‘mobility rule’) will be considered for proposal supervision.