The 7th edition of the international course “Data Analysis and Model Evaluation Tools in Environmental and Climate Science”, or in short the eScience course, was back in action 6-16 May 2024 at the Kristineberg Marine Research Station in Sweden. This course, co-organized by Stockholm University and the University of Oslo, brought together 21 students, 7 teaching assistants, 1 research software engineer, 2 organizers and many invited lecturers, altogether from countries across the globe such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovenia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, India, the US and Romania. 

4 CRiceS researchers participated in the course: Paul Zieger as the co-organiser, Julia Asplund and Rémy Lapere as teaching assistants and Daniel Köhler as a student.

These ten intensive days consisted of lectures on the climate system, discussions on coding best practices and reflections on science ethics, combined with group projects on climate data analysis using Python. The days spent together were an incredible way for students at the Masters and PhD level to expand their knowledge and skills, to build an international network, and to enjoy the beautiful nature of the Swedish West Coast. All of this in a relaxed and fun, yet hard-working atmosphere.

Many of the projects conducted by the students are related to CRiceS research themes, such the analysis of aerosol size distribution in the Arctic and their relation to the onset of the melt season, the use of perturbed parameter experiments to better predict the role of aerosols in climate models, or the investigation of the trends, drivers and impacts of high latitude wildfires.

Undoubtedly, the long working days, the ping pong tournaments, the epic boat trips and the long discussions at night generated friendships and created a firm basis for future fruitful scientific collaborations. 

This year, the course was co-sponsored by CRiceS, the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, CHESS (Research school on changing climates in the coupled earth system), BRACE-MY (Boosting ReseArch CapabilitiEs of Romanian Cloud MicrophYsics Centre), Stockholm University and the University of Oslo. 

The next course will take place in May 2025. More details can be found here.