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Job Record #19697
TitlePhD in "Numerical modeling of tornado winds in the Po Valley"
CategoryPhD Studentship
EmployerUniversity School for Advanced Studies of Pavia
LocationItaly, Italy, Pavia
InternationalYes, international applications are welcome
Closure Date* None *
Description:
Fully funded PhD scholarship in "Numerical modeling of tornado winds in the Po 
Valley"

Description of the research topic
Extreme weather events such as tornadoes are increasingly documented in Italy. A 
recent study conducted by CNR-ISAC confirmed the existence of specific areas that 
are more frequently affected by this phenomenon. One of these areas is represented 
by the Po Valley. Tornadoes, along with downbursts, are highly localized 
atmospheric phenomena with an impact radius of only few hundreds of meters to a 
few tens of kilometers, and winds that are among the most violent ever recorded in 
nature. Winds of such intensity are devastating for both civil structures and 
strategic infrastructures. However, since these are very localized phenomena, 
meteorological models operating at the horizontal grid resolutions of few 
kilometers and coarse time scales are unable to capture events that occur over a 
very short spatiotempral scales. It is therefore essential to adopt numerical 
models with extremely high resolution capable of replicating their localized and 
unsteady nature at the scale of buildings. In a completely innovative approach, 
high-resolution computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and cloud model simulations 
will be used to reproduce tornadoes on both flat terrain and in more complex 
surroundings of Po Valley. These numerical simulations will aim to quantify the 
dynamical proceses of tornado genesis - through validation with real-world 
measurements and laboratory tests already present in the literature. Validated 
models will further be used to evaluate tornadic wind impact on structures. 

Research team and environment
The PhD candidate will carry out the research study at IUSS of Pavia, in the 
CARISMA group, in close collaboration with the McGill University, Department of 
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. The student co-supervised by Dr. Alessio Ricci 
from IUSS of Pavia, Italy, and Dr. Djordje Romanic from McGill University, Canada, 
will benefit from the extensive experience of the two groups in climatology, wind 
measurement and modeling; wind effects on infrastructures and environment; impact 
assessment of extreme natural events; risk management of natural and anthropogenic 
hazards.

Suggested skills for this research topic 
The candidate should have knowledge of Computational Fluid Dynamics, mesoscale 
cloud models used in atmospheric sciences, atmospheric dynamics, data analysis and 
statistics. Programming skills in Matlab/Python /Fortran/C++ and knowledge of 
signal processing could also be beneficial. Team working attitude and excellent 
knowledge of spoken and written English are highly desirable.

Contact Information:
Please mention the CFD Jobs Database, record #19697 when responding to this ad.
NameAlessio Ricci
Emailalessio.ricci@iusspavia.it
Email ApplicationNo
AddressPiazza della Vittoria 15
Record Data:
Last Modified09:53:39, Saturday, May 31, 2025

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