Partner 11: HYDS

Hydrometeorological Innovative Solutions (HYDS) is a spin-off initiative of the Centre of Applied Research in Hydrometeorology of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (CRAHI-UPC), supported by CIDEM (Catalan Center for Enterprise Innovation and Development). Hyds' main motivation is the transfer of R&D into innovative operational solutions in the field of the water cycle. Hyds is firmly embedded in an extremely innovative and dynamic working environment with active international synergies. Hyds has established robust technological transfer capabilities derived from its previous experience in a university context. That potential provides Hyds the ability to quickly transferred into market solutions the latest research developments. Hyds’ expertise deals with different aspects related with hydrometeorology (weather radar data processing and generation of hydrometeorological products, operational distributed rainfall-runoff modeling and forecasting, specific nowcasting products based on weather radar information, visualization and analysis of hydrometeorological products adapted to specific users needs, and tailor made developments and specific hydrometeorological tools for companies or institutions).

Monika Pfeifer. Research and development manager at HYDS. Monika Pfeifer (Dr. rer.-nat. Dipl.-Met.) studied meteorology and physics at the Universities of Munich (Germany) and Sevilla (Spain). Expert in active and passive remote sensing of precipitation and the use of remote sensing information with respect to quantitative precipitation estimation as well as the verification of NWP models. PhD student at the German Aerospace centre (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) working on the simulation of polarimetric radar quantities based on forecasts from the high resolution version of the NWP model COSMO-DE. Participation in the German Priority Program “Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (PQP)” of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the related field experiment COPS. Winner of the “Young scientist travel award” of the European Meteorological Society at ERAD 2004 and executive board member of the Bavarian branch of the German Meteorological Society.

Rafael Sánchez-Diezma Guijarro. Currently CEO at HYDS. He completed his studies as Civil Engineer in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and obtained a PhD degree in the topic of the hydrological applications of weather radar (2001). Since then he has develop his professional activity at CRAHI-UPC (from 2001 to 2006 he was Head of Research and Development at CRAHI-UPC) and started his activity at HYDS in 2007. He has an extensive experience in R&D activities related with the quantitative use of weather radar, and hydrological models, and has been regularly participating on EU R&D projects in the last 5 years. Additionally he has solid skills in all the aspects related with the transfer of technology from research to operational solutions and specifically in the development of end-user software tools for weather radar data processing and hydrological correction, and interactive advanced displays for hydrmeteorological data.

David López i Pons. Software Engineer at HYDS. Studied computer engineering at the University of Lleida (UdL) and Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He worked at CRAHI-UPC (2002-2004) developing hydrological models and weather radar applications. From 2005 to 2006 He gained experience as analyst and software designer in INDRA and A3Software. Since 2007 he works at HYDS as software project manager.

Selected Publications
2008.    Pfeifer, M., G. Craig, M. Hagen, and C. Keil, 2008: A polarimetric radar forward operator for model evaluation. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Submitted.
2007.    Pfeifer, M., M. Hagen, W. Yen, and H. Jan, 2007: Evaluation of precipiation forecasts by combined information content of polarimetric cloud and weather radar as well as disdrometer data. In: Proceedings of 33rd International Conference on Radar Meteorology, Cairns (Australia), 6B.6.
2007.    Gallus, W. and M. Pfeifer, 2007: Intercomparison of simulations using 4 WRF microphysical schemes with dual-polarization data for a German squall line. In: Proceedings of 22nd Conference on Weather Analysis and Forecasting /18th Conference on Numerical Weather Prediction, Park City, UT (USA).
2006.    Berenguer, M., D. Sempere-Torres, C. Corral, and R. S·nchez-Diezma, 2006a: A fuzzy logic technique for identifying nonprecipitating echoes in radar scans. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 23, 1157-1180.
2005.    Berenguer, M., C. Corral, R. Sánchez-Diezma, and D. Sempere-Torres, 2005: Hydrological validation of a radar-based nowcasting technique. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 6, 532-549.
2000.    Sánchez-Diezma, R., I. Zawadzki, and D. Sempere-Torres, 2000: Identification of the bright band through the analysis of volumetric radar data. Journal of Geophysical Research - D2, 105, 2225-2236.