Prof. Tomasz Hadaś: – MSCA? It's definitely worth it!

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) scholarship from the Horizon 2020 program was created to support the development of scientists' international professional careers by implementing individual research projects and expanding their research and non-scientific competences in academic institutions in Europe and beyond. There are 5 programs available under the MSCA, including the Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF). The program not only finances research, but also its promotion, which directly supports the development of the scholarship holder's scientific career.

Prof. Tomasz Hadaś from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics, who has just completed his project under the MSCA-IF program, emphasises that applying for the internship was well worth it: – The scholarship opens up many new opportunities, mainly due to the networking and multi-faceted nature of the tasks carried out. In addition to an attractive salary, the scholarship holder also receives a budget for the implementation and promotion of their research, as well as for personal development.

As emphasised by Prof. Hadaś, you do not have to worry about funds for conference travel, training or visits to other centres, because for each month of the project's duration the scholarship holder receives a mobility allowance of EUR 600. Apart from strictly scientific work, it is also possible, although not mandatory, to develop your teaching competences, e.g. by conducting classes in English or by participating in lectures from courses that are not offered at the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences – this enables you to introduce new content to your own classes after returning from the scholarship.

Professor Hadaś, who completed his research internship at the Institute of Navigation at the University of Stuttgart, deals with the use of satellite navigation observations for meteorological purposes, so-called GNSS meteorology. As he explains, the signal from navigation satellites is disrupted when passing through the Earth's atmosphere. These distortions are taken into account when calculating the precise position, and some of them are estimated in the data compilation process, but for most GNSS users they are a "by-product". However, they contain precise information about the water-vapour content on the path of the signal from the satellite to the receiver. – This information turns out to be extremely useful in weather forecasting, especially in reliably predicting sudden weather phenomena – emphasises the professor from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics of the UPWr.

The monitoring of water-vapour content in the atmosphere using navigation systems is not new. The innovation of Prof. Tomasz Hadaś's project led to reducing the time of observation processing and obtaining meteorological information in real time. The previously existing solutions required the observations to be saved in files, which were delivered at regular intervals to processing centres for time-consuming processing of several hours of recorded observations on multi-processor computer servers. The enhanced technological solutions allow you to transmit GNSS observations in real time using methods similar to Internet video streaming. The only thing you need to use this data is special software – the author of which is Professor Tomasz Hadaś.

– From the beginning of my research work, I have been developing algorithms and software that enable the development of microwave satellite observations in real time from various GNSS systems, not only from GPS systems, but also from the European Galileo or Russian GLONASS. A greater number of signals used provides more accurate information – explains the Professor from the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics.

During the MSCA-IF internship in Stuttgart Prof. Tomasz Hadaś optimised the computing process and improved the software, with the creation of an operational real-time water-vapour monitoring service for GNSS stations in Europe in mind. The last stage of the project was supposed to be cooperation with the German meteorological office DWD (Deutscher Wetterdienst), which was going to use the GNSS meteorology products created by Prof. Hadaś to improve short-term forecasts of their numerical weather forecast model. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DWD shifted entirely to remote work and limited research and development. Prof. Hadaś then decided to implement the remainder of the project locally – in Wrocław.

– Together with my graduate student Grzegorz Marut and Professors Witold Rohm and Jan Kapłon from IGiG, we conducted a test campaign in Wrocław, during which we monitored the water-vapour content on a local scale. Such measurements are not possible with the use of professional GNSS stations, which are on average 60-70km apart. So we built our own infrastructure, which consisted of 16 low-cost GNSS stations, worth several thousand zlotys each. In comparison, professional stations cost from several dozen to several hundred thousand zlotys. Our measurements let us observe the variability of the water-vapour content in the atmosphere with high spatial resolution. We also wanted to check whether the use of low-cost devices would negatively affect the accuracy of the results obtained in relation to those obtained with professional geodetic equipment – explains Prof. Tomasz Hadaś, emphasising that while the Wrocław GNSS station enables determining average information on the amount of vapour for an area with a radius of several dozen kilometres, the stations located in different parts of the city noted significant differences, e.g. between the east and west of Wrocław.

Although the internship ended in August this year, Prof. Hadaś is still working on the final report, recalling the last two years: – The internship allowed me to comfortably pursue my research idea, but I returned to UPWr with more. Although my internship is over, I am still collaborating with Professor Thomas Hobiger, my mentor. We are now anxiously awaiting the results of the OPUS-LAP competition, although we plan to conduct research regardless of the outcome. It was also with great pleasure that I observed my supervisor's working methods and the way he builds relationships in his team. These are also valuable experiences.

MSCA research internships are aimed at researchers with a PhD degree who want to conduct research activities abroad, gain new skills and develop their careers.