Maksims Pogumirskis
PhD
Tuning WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) for wind energy applications
Host Organisation
University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
Company
EMD International A/S, Denmark, Aalborg
Project Description
For the development of wind farms information about wind climate at turbine rotor height is essential. Such information can be acquired by installing tall measurement masts. However, their installation is costly and requires a long time for measurements to be made.
Alternatively, information about wind climate at the turbine heights can be acquired by performing numerical modelling. However, numerical atmosphere model data cannot be used before it has been proved to match the observations. Current atmosphere models are known to have systematic biases with respect to observations. The aim of the PhD work is to identify these biases and subsequently develop a setup of the WRF model that will be able to minimize these biases.
Supervisors
Tija Sīle
Lasse Svenningsen
Andrea N. Hahmann
Background
I was born in Riga, which is the capital of Latvia. I have acquired bachelor’s degree in mathematics (2022) and master’s degree in physics (2024) at the University of Latvia. Since 2019 I have been working as a research assistant at the Institute of Numerical Modelling, University of Latvia. I have experience with analyzing weather observation and model data. I have done research on wind and heatwave climate in Latvia, analyzed skill of seasonal weather forecasts and worked on developing a method to automatically identify coastal low-level jets. To recharge after work, I love to go hiking with my friends or do long distance cycling.
During the first years working at the Institute of Numerical Modelling, I have decided to pursue an academical career. While working at the Institute of Numerical Modelling, I got interested in meteorology and computational fluid dymanics. Doing PhD will allow me to learn more in those fields and build connections with other researchers from the same field. Furthermore, I will be able to apply my knowledge to help developement of wind energy infrastructure contributing to the growth of the sustainable energetics sector.
I believe that academia and industry have to work hand in hand. Therefore, spending 1.5 years working at the EMD will allow me to learn more about needs of industry and focus my further research towards practical applications.