You will earn 6 research credits over 8 weeks, conducting a faculty-supervised, hands-on, directed study research project with results that will culminate in the preparation of a research paper.
You will complete a minimum of 240 hours on research in and out of the laboratory. Your dedicated research location is determined by your project and will differ between IISTA and UGR.
To prepare for this experience you will speak with your research mentor before arriving in Spain to work on a literature review.
| Course ID | Title | Credits | Syllabus |
| GRAN RSLW 392S | International Independent Research in STEM Fields | 6 |
| Course ID | Title | Credits | Syllabus |
| GRAN RSLW 392S | International Independent Research in STEM Fields | 6 |
The atmosphere is composed of gasses, clouds and aerosol particles. Aerosols are minute particles suspended in the atmosphere. Aerosols interact both directly and indirectly with the Earth's radiation budget and climate. They are a key component of the atmosphere since they scatter and absorb sunlight. Their scattering of sunlight can reduce visibility (haze) and redden sunrises and sunsets. As an indirect effect, aerosols in the lower atmosphere are responsible for cloud formation and can modify the properties of cloud particles. However, they are very difficult to characterize because of their large spatial and temporal variability. Because of this, there is still a gap of knowledge related to aerosol particles and their impact on climate change. A better characterization of their spatial and temporal distribution based on experimental data is key to understanding and mitigating climate change.
Seventeen years of measurements using sun photometer measurements are available in Granada. Sun photometers are remote sensors that can measure the aerosol load in the atmosphere and their properties from the Earth’s surface. Using these properties, it is possible to distinguish the different aerosol types in the atmosphere and their effects. The sun-photometer at Granada is included in AERONET NASA’s network, which is a worldwide network that provides global information about aerosol properties. The goal of this project is to characterize the aerosol types in the city of Granada and their temporal variation during the past 17 years. The analysis can also be extended to other stations in any part of the world using AERONET data.
In this research project, we aim to learn how to exploit the database from AERONET sun photometers, to apply aerosol typing classification schemes and to analyze the temporal trends of aerosol properties. This will allow us to characterize aerosol composition and temporal variations over the city of Granada. The research will be performed under the supervision of María José Granados Muñoz (PhD) and Juan Antonio Bravo Aranda (PhD), in the IISTA, where the students will have the opportunity to work with all the available instrumentation and do hands-on training with the instruments and databases.
Desired qualifications: Motivated students with a strong interest in atmospheric science and remote sensing, and who work well in teams. You’ll be joining a group of experts, learning cutting-edge techniques, and contributing to research that makes a real-world impact. Programming skills are also desirable.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
The atmosphere is composed of gasses, aerosol particles… and clouds! Clouds are a key component of the atmosphere that is often dismissed when considering its components. They are crucial in the interaction with radiation and in the hydrological cycle, but very difficult to characterize because of their large spatial and temporal variability. There is still a gap of knowledge related to cloud formation and the physical processes occurring within. Because of this, they are usually not accurately characterized in climatic, forecast and radiative transfer models. A better characterization of clouds and processes occurring within based on experimental data is key to understanding and mitigating climate change.
Measurements within clouds are usually difficult to perform because of their high altitude and are very scarce and here it is where remote sensors become useful. Remote sensing observations from the ground and space have provided key datasets for understanding the Earth's atmosphere, including clouds. Satellites provide a wide spatial coverage, but with low temporal and vertical resolution. Ground-based measurements are located at local sites, but they provide high temporal and vertical resolution, so the combination of the different measurements is needed to obtain comprehensive information.
In Granada, we have a Doppler cloud radar that can continuously provide information about cloud properties with high-vertical resolution. It also has scanning capabilities that allow the study in 4D. Furthermore, there are multiple algorithms to retrieve different properties of the liquid water droplets forming the cloud, which will also allow us to characterize them. In this research project, we aim to learn how to operate cloud radars, to exploit their database and to familiarize with cloud properties. Study may be extended characterizing cloudiness over the city of Granada making use of our long-term database.
Desired qualifications: Motivated students with a strong interest in atmospheric science and remote sensing, and who work well in teams. You’ll be joining a group of experts, learning cutting-edge techniques, and contributing to research that makes a real-world impact. Programming skills are also desirable.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
The atmosphere is full of hidden wonders, and one of the most fascinating yet challenging to understand is the boundary layer. This part of the atmosphere plays a crucial role in everything from weather patterns to air quality, but because of its dynamic and complex nature, it’s tough to pin down. Understanding boundary layers is key for improving climate models, weather forecasts, and environmental management—and that’s where our work comes in. Using remote sensing tools like elastic and Doppler lidar, we’re working to shed light on the boundary layer with unprecedented detail.
The boundary layer is the lowest part of the atmosphere, extending just a few kilometers above the Earth's surface. It’s here that rapid changes in temperature, humidity, and wind speed take place, directly affecting environmental processes like pollution, energy transfer, and local weather. Traditionally, studying the boundary layer has been tricky, but with advancements in remote sensing, we now have powerful tools that can give us precise and detailed observations. Elastic and Doppler lidar, in particular, are helping us see boundary layers in a whole new way, providing real-time, high-resolution data.
In this research project, we’ll use these remote sensing techniques to better understand how boundary layers behave under different environmental conditions. Students will learn how to operate elastic and Doppler lidar systems, process the data, and analyze key boundary layer properties like height, thickness, wind speed, turbulence, and aerosol content. By the end of this project, the goal is to develop improved methods for tracking boundary layer dynamics, which will help enhance weather forecasts, air quality monitoring, and even climate models.
Desired qualifications: Motivated students with a strong interest in atmospheric science and remote sensing, and who work well in teams. You’ll be joining a group of experts, learning cutting-edge techniques, and contributing to research that makes a real-world impact. Programming skills are also desirable.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
Atmospheric aerosol is the suspension of solid or liquid particles in the atmosphere. These particles are of great importance for Earth’s radiative budget and, therefore, the climate. Aerosol particles directly affect the earth-atmosphere radiative counter by scattering (cooling effect) and absorption (warming effect) of solar radiation. Furthermore, these particles are the seed upon which cloud droplets form. Depending on their size and chemical composition, aerosol particles can act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and activate as cloud droplets. The aerosol-cloud interaction process depends on aerosol emission sources and the atmospheric processing that the particles undergo, which determines the size and chemical composition of the particles.
In this project, we will analyze data measured during different intensive field campaigns to investigate the impact of organic matter and different aerosol sources on the cloud condensation nuclei counter. Empirical models using ancillary information will be explored to improve the predictive capability of the CCN counter worldwide (Schmale et al., 2018).
The student(s) in this project will:
- Get to know the main international measurement networks and open-access repositories;
- Analyze the impact of organic sources on the CCN concentration and properties;
- Develop empirical models to estimate CCN concentration.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
During the last several decades, scientists have improved their understanding of Earth's climate system thanks to NASA space missions with special emphasis on the A-Train satellite constellation. Nevertheless, the current challenges in climate science requires new satellite developments as well as cooperation between international space agencies (e.g. ESA, JAXA and similar). Such cooperation allows the implementation of the latest technologies in passive remote sensing to characterize atmospheric composition. Although remote sensing via satellite is unique in its spatial and temporal coverage, such measurements need to be validated. To solve these limitations, ground-based networks have been implemented through international cooperation, with many of them hosted by NASA.
The Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET) is an international network with headquarters at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. With more than 400 instruments distributed worldwide, AERONET’s main objective is to study columnar aerosol properties using the well-known sun-photometry technique and uses the standard instrument CIMEL CE-318. AERONET’s success in providing both optical and microphysical properties of aerosols has served for decades as a reference for validating satellite aerosol products. Additionally, the NASA Pandora Project is part of Pandonia Global Networks, a collaboration between NASA and ESA focuses on establishing long-term fixed locations and long-term quality observations of the total column of a range of trace gasses.
The objective of this research is to familiarize students with the use of AERONET and Pandonia to evaluate data for satellite validation. Students will familiarize themselves with current and future space missions and their means of validation, as well as the use of ground-based networks for studying extreme events (e.g. intense pollution, volcanic eruption, Saharan dust storms, biomass burning). Students will become familiar with the installation of AERONET and Pandora standard instruments.
Desired qualifications: No special mathematical background is needed, although it is expected students will have preliminary skills in data visualization. We expect that students will develop additional skills in the communication of extreme events via social networks.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
Understanding the composition and dynamics of Earth´s atmosphere requires precise knowledge of global temperatures and radiation profiles, water vapor content and wind. Traditionally, such measurements were acquired by radiosondes, but were limited to certain locations and periodic launches. The development of a microwave radiometer technique allows continuous monitoring of such thermodynamic atmospheric variables. In 2002, NASA launched the Aqua satellite, which deployed Atmospheric Infrared Sounders (AIRS). AIRS and its partner instrument AMSU are observing and characterizing the entire atmospheric column from Earth's surface to the top of the atmosphere in terms of surface emissivity and temperature, atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles, cloud amount and height, and outgoing spectral infrared radiation. These data and scientific investigations will answer long-standing questions about the exchange and transformation of energy and radiation in the atmosphere and on the Earth’s surface. However, any satellite product must be validated from ground-based measurements because of the complexity of satellite instruments and of inversion techniques. In this sense, for validation of the AIRS data the US Department of Energy, through the ARM program, deployed supersites with many remote sensing instruments for the validation of AIRS. Additionally, E-PROFILE, which is part of the EUMETNET Composite Observing System, is a European network of radar wind profilers (RWP) and automatic lidars and ceilometers (ALC) for the monitoring of vertical profiles of atmospheric thermodynamic variables.
The objective of this research is to familiarize students with the use of AIRS data and the online tools developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Students will also become familiar with the ARM program and E-PROFILE for the validation of AIRS products. They will also study the characterization of atmospheric thermodynamics during extreme events, such as hurricanes, dust transport or droughts.
Desired qualifications: No special mathematical background is needed although it is expected that students will have preliminary skills in data visualization. We expect that students will develop additional skills in the communication of extreme events via social networks.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
Air quality is an important factor in maintaining a healthy environment, especially in cities like Granada (Spain). However, air pollution levels can vary across different areas of a city due to factors like traffic, weather, and geography. In this project, we aim to explore how air quality changes in different parts of Granada by analyzing data measured with Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), a remote sensing system able to detect particles in the air at different distances.
The project will focus on analyzing data collected by the Lidar technique, which is used to measure the presence and amount of particles in the atmosphere. The students will help analyze the data to understand how pollution levels vary across the city. The work will involve basic data analysis, learning about air quality and measuring principles, and creating simple maps to visualize how pollution changes over time and space.
Research Objectives:
By the end of the project, students will have gained experience in data analysis and learned about the importance of high resolution air quality monitoring. The final outcome will be easy-to-understand maps that show how air quality varies in different neighborhoods of Granada, which can help inform the public and policymakers about pollution in their city.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
Wind field is one of the key variables in understanding the dynamics of the atmosphere from large to local scales. Accurate measurements of wind speed and direction profiles are required by high-resolution numerical weather prediction models and also to characterize the local transport of pollutants, energy, humidity, etc. Retrieval of the horizontal wind field has been widely used for wind energy, aviation and meteorology because of the possibility of studying effects such as wind shear, low-level jets or wind gusts. In particular, urban areas with complex topography, such as basins, usually present pollution episodes due to the combined effect with weather patterns and a correct parameterization of the wind field is crucial for those cases. In this context, Doppler Lidar technique represents a powerful tool to retrieve profiles of 3D wind fields with high spatial and temporal resolution.
The aim of this project is to analyze 3D wind field observations with single and dual Doppler techniques throughout Granada (Spain). This city presents atmospheric features strongly influenced by its complex terrain due to its proximity to the Iberian Peninsula’s highest peak, Mulhacen, which is 3479 m above sea level. Different Doppler Lidar observation geometries (Vertical-Azimuth Display, Range-Height Indicator, dual Principal Plane Indicator...) will be explored to obtain different features of the wind field over the city, such as mountain-valley flows of the horizontal heterogeneity due to urban effects.
The student(s) in this project will familiarize themselves with the Doppler Lidar technique and with high resolution wind field observation and analysis, which have applications in other fields such as pollution dispersion and transport or urban ventilation.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
Air pollution is a risk factor for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and also for cancer. Emissions from road traffic have been associated with an increase in mortality, lung cancer and a general deterioration of the respiratory system. The concentration of a certain pollutant in the Atmosphere depends on (1) the emission sources and their distance and (2) meteorological conditions. That is why the concentrations of the different atmospheric pollutants present large spatial-temporal variability. Knowing the temporal evolution and the strength of the main sources of pollutants can help to design more effective action plans to reduce different pollutants.
Granada, despite being a medium-sized and non-industrialized city, is among the three Spanish cities with the highest level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution (Casquero-Vera et., 2019). The high concentration of NO2, as well as of particles, are mainly due to traffic emissions (Casquero-Vera et al., 2021). In addition to particle emissions caused by road traffic, emissions from heating (fuel oil) and biomass burning (either for heating or burning stubble), especially during winter (Titos et al., 2017) exacerbate the situation. In this sense, the intensity of sources is seasonal, but also long-term measurements can provide us information about changes on uses (for example an increase/decrease of traffic or biomass burning emissions).
This study will focus on the temporal variability of different sources of pollutants in the urban areas of Granada and will provide useful information to plan further actions to mitigate air pollution effectively .
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
Precipitation, a critical part of the hydrological cycle, affects ecosystems, agriculture, water supply, and even atmospheric dynamics. Yet, despite its ubiquity, rain remains one of the most variable and complex atmospheric processes to measure and understand. Factors such as drop size distribution, intensity, and temporal variability make accurate characterization of rain essential but challenging. Improved understanding of rainfall patterns is essential to better predict hydrological impacts and to improve climate models, weather forecasts, and water management strategies.
Traditional methods of measuring rainfall, such as pluviometers, offer insight into the total precipitation over time. However, they provide information at the surface level and lack the ability to give detailed information about rain microphysics. New approaches include disdrometers and micro rain radars (MRRs), giving us complementary information such as drop sizes and rain vertical structures. At our research facility in Granada, we have them all! Indeed, measuring side by side, they provide us with an enhanced observation of rain events. Each tool offers unique data: pluviometers provide accumulated rainfall, disdrometers give us drop size and velocity, and MRRs offer detailed vertical profiles of precipitation. By combining these instruments, we can obtain a comprehensive view of rainfall events, including intensity, distribution, and vertical dynamics.
In this research initiative, motivated students will be introduced to each of these instruments and trained on how to operate them. They will learn how to collect, process, and analyze rain data, bridging the gap between theory and practice. This research will contribute to a better understanding of rainfall patterns in Granada and how this data can be used to improve weather prediction models.
Desired qualifications: Candidates with strong teamwork skills who are interested in learning cutting-edge research methods in atmospheric science. Programming skills are also desirable.
Relevant majors: Meteorology, Physics, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Computer Science
This project uses in-silico predictors and various molecular biology databases with the aim of explaining the molecular role of the proposed gene and main SNPs in prostate cancer.
The project will focus on the following SNPs: rs76832527, rs16843438, rs60985508, rs77559646, rs2074840, rs76832527, rs2074840, rs76832527, rs77559646, rs77482050, rs76832527, rs60985508, rs77559646, rs77559646, rs77482050, rs76832527 and rs60985508
Students should be aware that a substantial portion of their time will be dedicated to data analysis.
This project uses in-silico predictors and various molecular biology databases with the aim of explaining the molecular role of the proposed gene and main SNPs in prostate cancer. The project will focus on the following SNPs:
rs77805476, rs4871798, rs1447293, rs4871790, rs1447295, rs13255059, rs56339048, rs4582524, rs7837688, rs7843031, rs9656816, rs6985504, rs4242384, rs4582524, rs7837688, rs4242382, rs11986220, rs10090154, rs11986220, rs4242384, rs28489376, rs34265760, rs12549761, rs4285449, rs4793529, rs1859962, rs4793529, rs8072735, rs8068266, rs7222314, rs1859963, rs17765332, rs9893698, rs7217073, rs9911515, rs9889335, rs4793529, rs1859962, rs7217073, rs8071558, rs17765344, rs6501436 and rs984434
Students should be aware that a substantial portion of their time will be dedicated to data analysis.
This project uses in-silico predictors and various molecular biology databases with the aim of explaining the molecular role of the proposed gene and main SNPs in renal tumors. The project will focus on the following SNPs:
rs4953345; rs7579899; rs11894252; rs2121266; rs7579899; rs11894252; rs11125068; rs1868089; rs72797404; rs193922608; rs142728549; rs7629500 and rs1681660
Students should be aware that a substantial portion of their time will be dedicated to data analysis.
The following information is vetted and provided by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) on the Electronic Database for Global Education (EDGE).
| Spanish | Abbreviation | Translation | Numeric | U.S. Equivalent |
| Sobresaliente | SB | Outstanding | 9 - 10 | A |
| Notable | NT | Very Good | 7 - 8.99 | B+ |
| Bien | B | Good | 6 - 6.99 | B |
| Aprobado | AP | Passing | 5 - 5.99 | C |
| Suspenso | S/I | Fail | 0 - 4.99 | F |