3rd Summer School: “Crash Course on Data Assimilation - Theoretical foundations and advanced applications with focus on ensemble methods”

The 4-days school aims at PhD-level students and early-stage scientists intending to apply data assimilation as part of their research. The school should also be useful for students with beginner or little notions of data assimilation. The crash course will cover the basic concepts of data assimilation, focusing on ensemble methods, illustrated with real-scale / operational applications and with practical exercises. This 3rd edition will also include notions of Machine Learning of relevance for data assimilation.

The event is organised by NERSC and NORCE in the framework of the projects DIGIRES and REDDA from the Norwegian Research Council and supported by the climate research school CHESS.

The temporary list of lectures and (tentative) topics are the following:

• Geir Evensen (NORCE & NERSC, Norway): Basic principles of inference and theory of variational and sequential Gaussian analysis, from the EnKF to iterative smoothers
• Laurent Bertino (NERSC, Norway): Background statistics, spatial covariances, anamorphosis for non Gaussian variables
• Alberto Carrassi (Uni. Reading, UK): Data assimilation for chaotic dynamics
• Julien Brajard (NERSC, Norway): Machine Learning with exercises
• Patrick Raanes (NORCE, Norway): Exercises and illustrations using the DA Python platform DAPPER
• Francois Counillon (NERSC, Norway): Data assimilation for climate prediction
• Annette Samuelsen (NERSC, Norway): Data assimilation for marine ecosystem
• Mohammad el Gharamti (NCAR, USA): Data assimilation in hydrology and streamflow forecasting
• Brian Hunt (Uni. Maryland, USA): Connections between data assimilation and machine learning

A preliminary agenda is as follows:

• Tue. 5th May: Theory of data assimilation and practical exercises (G. Evensen, P. Raanes)
• Wed. 6th May: Geostatistics, poster session (L. Bertino)
• Thu. 7th May: Applications of data assimilation (F. Counillon, A. Samuelsen, M. el Gharamti)
• Fri. 8th May: Machine Learning and chaotic dynamics (J. Brajard, B. Hunt, A. Carrassi)

The workshop will correspond to about 30 hours of work for students and count as one ECTS credit.

There are no fees associated with the school, but the number of participants is limited to 30 due to logistics.

The deadline for applications is February, 15th 2020.

The committee will select the students based on their area of interest and the motivation statement.
Priority will be given to PhD students and early-career scientists in the field of data assimilation.
Full or partial financial support will be considered upon request. Norwegian students affiliated with the research school CHESS can claim travel costs there.

The participants will be encouraged to bring over a poster for presenting their research activities.

THE REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED!

The crash-course is organised in conjunction with the 15th International EnKF workshop (https://enkf.norceprosjekt.no/home) taking place on May 11-13, 2020 in Geilo, Norway. Participants to the Crash Course on DA are strongly encouraged to attend the workshop too.

For a list of hotels available in Bergen, please see this site:
http://www.visitbergen.com/en/WHERE-TO-STAY/Hotel/
The following hotels are particularly convenient for their location close to NERSC: Hotel Park Pension, Hotel Augustin, Clarion Hotel Admiral, Citybox.
NERSC can be reached on foot from the city centre (15 minutes walk) or by light rail "Bybane" at the station "Florida".

The organizing committee:

Geir Evensen (NORCE and NERSC, Bergen, Norway)

Laurent Bertino (NERSC, Bergen, Norway)

Julien Brajard (NERSC, Bergen, Norway)

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REGISTRATION FORM