Software Carpentry: Python masterclass for weather, ocean and climate scientists

Monday, 10 June 2019

Venue: CDU Waterfront Campus Room 3.20

​Python is rapidly emerging as the programming language of choice for data analysis in the weather, climate and ocean sciences.  By consulting online tutorials and help pages, most researchers in this community are able to pick up the basic syntax and programming constructs (e.g. loops, lists and conditionals). This self-taught knowledge is sufficient to get work done, but it often involves spending hours to do things that should take minutes, reinventing a lot of wheels, and a nagging uncertainty at the end of it all regarding the reliability and reproducibility of the results. To help address these issues, this workshop will cover a suite of programming best practices that aren’t so easy to glean from a quick Google search:

• Using functions to write modular, reusable code
• Vectorisation of large array operations
• Testing and defensive programming
• Writing programs that can be executed from the command line
• Tools and strategies for profiling and debugging
• Version control

Along the way, participants will learn how to install and manage their Python environment using conda, interact with common development environments and the Jupyter notebook, and go on a tour of the most commonly used Python libraries in the weather, climate and ocean sciences.​

Pre-requisite knowledge:
To attend this workshop, participants must already be using Python for their data analysis. They don’t need to be highly proficient, but a strong familiarity with Python syntax and basic constructs such as loops, lists and conditionals (i.e. if statements) is required.

Convener: Damien Irving

Other requirements:
Estimated attendance: 50 max.  Participants should bring their own laptop (please contact us if you are not able to do so). Information has been sent to participants about software packages to be installed prior to the workshop. Contact us if you haven’t received information for this workshop. Please view the Software Carpentry website for further details.

Fee: $50. This includes morning and afternoon tea. Participants can bring or buy their own lunch.

Weather Forecasting in the Tropics

Monday, 10 June 2019

Venue: CDU Waterfront Campus - Room 5.03 

This workshop aims to bring together forecasters and researchers to review current challenges of weather forecasting in the Tropics. A special focus will be on forecasting precipitation as well as the ability and limitations of current models in forecasting severe weather. The workshop is seen as a sequel to that held in nearly two decades ago in Darwin (Smith et al., 2001: Proceedings of an International Workshop on the Dynamics and Forecasting of Tropical Weather Systems. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 82, 2825-2829).

The workshop will include a series of review talks by eminent researchers and presentations from forecasters outlining current challenges in forecasting significant weather in the Tropics. It is planned to schedule copious time for discussion and the Workshop will aim to produce a set of recommendations for future research.

Programme

https://www.cdu.edu.au/campuses-centres/cdu-darwin-waterfront

Climate Science Data Access and Analysis at NCI

Monday 10 June – 1:30pm to 5:30pm 

Venue: CDU Waterfront Campus - Room 3.21 

The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) hosts a large collection of Climate and Weather data, from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and derived climate model output to observational and reanalysis data. The data is co-located with NCI’s High Performance Computing (HPC) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) which provides an interactive cloud environment for data visualisation and analysis.

This workshop will incorporate hands-on examples of searching and accessing the large volumes of climate data available at NCI, as well as how to take advantage of the software and tools available to analyse and process this data. The workshop will cover the process of requesting additional datasets and discovering what is globally available. The workshop will provide substantial Q&A opportunities for those new to CMIP data as well as those familiar with earlier CMIP phases looking to move into CMIP6 analysis. With CMIP6 being a priority for 2019, we will prioritise examples using this data, including demonstration of tools that have been developed as part of the Climate Science Data Enhanced Virtual Laboratory (DEVL).

Convenors
Kate Snow, National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)
kate.snow@anu.edu.au
02 6125 0749

Clare Richards, National Computational Infrastructure (NCI)
clare.richards@anu.edu.au
02 6125 5029

Claire Trenham, CSIRO
Claire Carouge, UNSW, CLEX.
Aurel Moise, BoM.
Paola Petrelli, UTas, CLEX.

How to access and use IMOS data for your research

Monday 10 June 2019 – 2:30pm to 5:30pm
Room # 3.21 - CDU Waterfront Campus (Charles Darwin University Waterfront Campus)

The workshop web page has information on the agenda, descriptions of talks and what you need to do to prepare. http://imos.org.au/calendar/events/amosimos2019/

Since 2006, IMOS has been routinely operating a wide range of observing equipment throughout Australia’s coastal and open oceans, making all of its data accessible to the marine and climate science community, other stakeholders and users, and international collaborators.

This workshop is to assist the scientific community discover, access, download, use and understand the potential of the data for their research.

The workshop will be focused on the use of physical oceanographic data from remotely sensed and in situ observations. The intention is for a hands on guided tutorial that shows the use of the AODN portal and the tools that are available to analyse the data. Data from a number of presentations at AMOS-ICTMO 2019 will be used as examples to show how the data presented was accessed and visualised for their talks.

AREA OF SCIENCE
Ocean observations, marine extremes, modelling, climate, ocean circulation, stratification

LEAD CONVENOR
Craig Steinberg, AIMS
c.steinberg@aims.gov.au

CONVENOR 2
Ana Lara Lopez, IMOS
ana.lara@utas.edu.au