Forecasting of solar irradiance and ramp events with all-sky imagers

<p>Cloud cameras (all sky imagers/ASIs) can be used for short-term (next 20 min) forecasts of solar irradiance. For this reason, several experimental and operational solutions emerged in the last decade with different approaches in terms of instrument types and forecast algorithms. Moreover, few commercial and semi-prototype systems are already available or being investigated. So far, the uncertainty of the predictions cannot be fully compared, as previously published tests were carried out during different periods and at different locations. In this study, the results from a benchmark exercise are presented in order to qualify the current ASI-based short-term forecasting solutions and examine their accuracy. This first comparative measurement campaign carried out as part of the IEA PVPS Task 16 (https://iea-pvps.org/research-tasks/solar-resource-for-high-penetration-and-large-scale-applications/). A 3-month observation campaign (from August to December 2019) took place at Plataforma Solar de Almeria of the Spanish research center CIEMAT including five different ASI systems and a network of high-quality measurements of solar irradiance and other atmospheric parameters. Forecasted time-series of global horizontal irradiance are compared with ground-based measurements and two persistence models to identify strengths and weaknesses of each approach and define best practices of ASI-based forecasts. The statistical analysis is divided into seven cloud classes to interpret the different cloud type effect on ASIs forecast accuracy. For every cloud cluster, at least three ASIs outperform persistence models, in terms of forecast error, highlighting their performance capabilities. The feasibility of ASIs on ramp event detection is also investigated, applying different approaches of ramp event prediction. The revealed findings are promising in terms of overall performance of ASIs as well as their forecasting capabilities in ramp detection.  </p>

Long-term seafloor morphological changes generated by bottom trawling on the northern Catalan continental shelf (NW Mediterranean)

<p>The north-western Mediterranean continental margin is one of the few regions in the world where bottom trawling has been continuously practised since several decades. Among the existing trawling techniques, the one practised on this region is the "otter trawling", which has a strong impact on the seafloor morphology via scraping and ploughing, especially on muddy substrates. High-resolution multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, side scan sonar images, sediment cores and satellite based Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data have been integrated to investigate the impact of bottom trawling on the seafloor morphology of the northern Catalan continental shelf (NW Mediterranean). Satellite-based navigation tracks from bottom trawlers operating in the study area during 6 years (2006-2011) reveal the spatial distribution of fishing grounds and the occurrence of an intense trawling effort around the 50-60 m isobaths, since trawling is banned at shallow depths. Backscatter imagery shows a narrow (120-250 m wide) and discontinuous high backscatter facies along this depth range, extending parallel to the coastline for more than 40 km from Portbou to l’Estartit. In the bathymetric data, this high backscatter region also coincides with an abrupt change in the mean seafloor gradient (from 0.8° in the inner shelf to 0.4° in the middle shelf), or locally with a narrow (50-150 m wide) slightly depressed (0.2-0.6 m deep) channeled morphology. Side-scan sonar images display high density of trawl marks generated by fishing gears in this area. Further offshore, scattered narrower trawl hauls are also observed on the middle shelf (60-90 m deep), where they can be traced across several thousands of meters. Sediment cores retrieved from the area of high backscatter and largest trawling intensity display sediment coarsening in the upper layers (0-4 cm) caused by winnowing of finer fractions. These findings demonstrate that chronic stirring, mixing and erosion of surface sediments induced by recurrent trawling persisting over the same fishing grounds can cause long-term morphological and sedimentary changes on the continental shelf seafloor.</p><p>This study has received funding from the ABIDES (Assessment of Bottom-trawling Impacts in the Deep-sea Sediments) Spanish Research Project (CTM2015-65142-R) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 867471. Additional funds were provided by the Generalitat de Catalunya Generalitat de Catalunya (2017 SGR-663 and -1588) and by the Spanish Research Project ABRIC (RTI2018-096434-B-I00). This work is contributing to the ICM’s ‘Center of Excellence’ Severo Ochoa (CEX2019-000928-S). The authors wish to thank the Secretaría General de Pesca and Tragsa for the 2004 Espace Project dataset.</p>

Indian Ocean Imaginaries. The Academic Trajectory of the Ratnakara Research Group

This article outlines the academic trajectory of the Ratnakara Research Group through a description of the research conducted in each of the financed research projects it has been awarded. Ratnakara. Indian Ocean Literatures and Cultures is the only Spanish research group that specializes in the study of the literary and cultural productions of the Indian Ocean area and has contributed to the creation and consolidation of Indian Ocean imaginaries.

Research on Library and Information Science in Spain: diagnosis 2020

Spanish research in Documentation (or Library and Information Science, LIS) rose to prominence in the 1980s, in parallel with the creation of university programmes in LIS, and activity in this field continued to increase significantly until the year 2000. During this period, research in Documentation was oriented towards dissemination rather than innovation, its international impact was low, and it suffered from limited financial and human resources and a lack of methodological quality. In the first 20 years of the 21st century, research in this field has experienced an extraordinary level of growth and diversification, with the result that many of the problems mentioned above have been resolved. This article presents a general overview of Documentation research in Spain over the last 20 years based on an analysis of five fundamental aspects: publications (articles and monographs), topics and methodologies, scientific journals, research projects, and doctoral theses. General descriptive data from public statistical sources are offered on each of these aspects, together with observations drawn from a bibliographic review. Our conclusion is that the evolution of Spanish research in Documentation over the last 20 years has been very positive, due to a quantitative increase in activity (publications, theses, research projects, etc.) and a qualitative improvement in the use of research methods and techniques, as well as a diversification of research topics. However, there is room for improvement in the area of internationalisation (collaboration with foreign authors) and the presentation of international projects. There is also a risk that retirement of researchers and the absence of generational renewal of staff, especially at universities, may slow down this growth.