ESP

Europe/Rome 2018-05-28 08:00:00 2018-06-08 22:00:00 Ninth ICTP Workshop on the Theory and Use of Regional Climate Models | (smr 3208) The ICTP regional climate modeling system RegCM4 is currently participating to the CORDEX-CORE initiative, which entails the completion of a new set of downscaled climate projections over most CORDEX domains for two greenhouse gas concentration scenarios (RCP8.5 and RCP2.6) at a horizontal grid spacing of 25 km. These projections are being completed at ICTP as well as other laboratories using the RegCM4 model, as a community effort aimed at producing climate information usable for impact assessment studies and contributing to the activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is expected that by the date of the workshop a number of new projections will have been completed for multiple domains, and therefore the workshop will be an optimal venue to analyze these projections and exchange experience across different domains and regions. As in previous workshops of this series, this event will provide lectures and extensive hands-on sessions on the theory of regional climate change and regional climate modeling as well as the use of the RegCM modeling system. The focus of the present workshop will be on the analysis and interpretation of the output of regional model projections, addressing issues such as : assessment of model performance, performance metrics a and model systematic errors, identification and quantification of added value, study of phenomena relevant to different regions, uncertainty in projections and their dependence on model biases. The workshop will also provide a forum to discuss the production of scientific publications by the RegCM user community participating to the CORDEX-CORE effort, particularly in view of relevant IPCC deadlines. Experience with the RegCM modeling system and with the analysis of regional model output is an important requirement for participation. The workshop is intended for scientists and graduate students working in the areas of Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics, Climatology, Oceanography, Physics and Mathematics. ICTP ICTP pio@ictp.it 28 May 2018 - 8 Jun 2018

Europe/Rome 2018-06-04 08:00:00 2018-06-29 22:00:00 The Summer School on Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development - OpTIMUS | (smr 3210) The Summer School on Modelling Tools for Sustainable development will provide training on selected open modelling tools for sustainable development pathways. The Summer School involves four weeks of intensive training for government officials from countries participating in, amongst others, UNDESA, UNDP, World Bank Group and related capacity development projects on modelling tools. It will also engage academics and researchers working in the field of sustainable development whose institutions will become regional centres of excellence. As one of several entry points analysts will be exposed to geospatial electricity access (using the OnSSET.org tool) as well as medium to long term energy investment modelling (using the OSeMOSYS.org tool). Participants will then extend this to include integrated Climate-, Land-, Energy- and Water- system (using the OsiMOSYS.org) modelling. The latter will investigate the benefits of resource policy coherence. During the first week of training steering committee meetings of experts dedicated to the development of these tools will also be held (in parallel to the training). The same experts will be involved in introductory presentations. The RGCM and SPEEDY climate models of the ICTP will also be introduced in the first week. During the second to the third week participants will deepen their modelling skills so that they can operate and enhance their national models independently, incorporate new and evolving policy issues and contribute to the practice of providing rigorous evidence for decision making on national sustainable development policies. In the fourth week, presentations (by participants) will be made to high level policy makers. This will be followed by a one day high level policy discussion. The workshop will culminate with an exercise by trainers, trainees, academics, funders and others to enhance the efficacy of global capacity building for sustainability. Participation in the event will be primarily by invitation only. However, limited spaces are available for self-funded participants. The self-funded applicants are limited to academics, researchers and graduate students working on related fields, preferably working in (or with developing countries). The self-funded participants must be from a university that plans to implement teaching activities using OSeMOSYS.org, OnSSET.org or OSiMOSYS.org. A letter of commitment should be obtained from the appropriate person responsible - and submitted with the application. (Note that all teaching material from the course, can be used for the course. There are online discussion fora. Also, note that all software is free and open source.) Applications will be evaluated by the selection committee based on the following criteria: i) Relevance of their academic background to the research field(s) of the Summer School, ii) Excellent language skills iii) Clear potential and ambition to contribute to the adoption of related teaching and training in developing country institutions. The program is open for applications from all countries. Visa support may be provided. Self-funded participants will be required to bring their own laptops with windows 10 installed and full administrator rights. ICTP ICTP pio@ictp.it 4 Jun 2018 - 29 Jun 2018

Europe/Rome 2018-06-25 08:00:00 2018-07-05 22:00:00 ICTP Summer School on Theory, Mechanisms and Hierarchical Modelling of Climate Dynamics: Multiple Equilibria in the Climate System | (smr 3214) The climate community is still faced with large uncertainties in estimating possible climate changes in the next decades and quantifying the relative role of anthropogenic contribution to climate change. Although most modern climate models are able to reproduce reasonably well global climatologies and patterns of interannual variations, they still struggle with pervasive biases and the representation of some of the climate phenomena involving the interaction and coupling between the atmosphere, the ocean and the cryosphere. The problem is compounded by the limited understanding of some of the physical mechanisms giving rise to both our present mean climate and its natural variability at different time scales. One possible way forward is the use of a hierarchy of models to tackle the most pressing questions in climate dynamics and modeling. Key among them, is whether the climate is stable, or whether internal feedbacks could lead to tipping points, abrupt changes, and transitions to fundamentally different equilibria. Changes in the oceanic overturning, ice-albedo effects, land-surface and vegetation coupling to the atmosphere, and radiative-convective properties of the atmosphere have all been suggested as possible causes of instability in the climate system. Advances in our understanding, quantification, and modelling of these processes are necessary both for the interpretation of the paleoclimate record and for the projection of possible future climate states. A variety of studies have found that multiple equilibria exist both in highly idealized and more comprehensive models of the climate system. Whether multiple equilibria do exist in state-of-the-art climate models is still a subject of controversy. A fundamental understanding of key processes within a hierarchical modeling framework will eventually translate into a better representation and simulation within state-of-the-art climate models, as it brings new insights for process-based evaluation of climate model reliability and fit for purpose. The use of hierarchies additionally promotes the use of standardized performance metrics and highlights instances when post-processing approaches (e.g. bias correction) or diverse model tuning practices should be explored. The school will be based on lectures on theoretical aspects of atmosphere, ocean and climate dynamics, with a focus on the present state of established knowledge and relevant mechanisms. The topic of the school, Multiple Equilibra in the Climate System, will be the subject of afternoon lectures, giving an overview of the most recent progress and hypotheses suggesting the existence of multiple equilibrium states, and consequences for past and future climates. Afternoons will also be devoted to practical sessions, involving the use of simplified climate models and analysis of relevant data sets. The school will be followed by the workshop WCRP Grand Challenge on Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity: 2nd Meeting on Monsoons and Tropical Rain Belts , SMR3252, 2 - 5 July 2018, go to link http://indico.ictp.it/event/8457/     Confirmed speakers: Simona Bordoni, CalTech, USA David Ferreira, Reading U., UK In-Sik Kang, SNU, Republic of Korea John Marshall, MIT, USA Franco Molteni, ECMWF, UK Brian Rose, U. Albany, USA Stephen Thomson, U. exeter, UK Adrian M. Tompkins, ICTP, Italy Geoff K. Vallis, U. Exeter, UK Shang-Ping Xie, SCRIPPS, USA ATTENTION: APPLICATION HERE IS FOR BOTH SCHOOL AND WORKSHOP, DEADLINE 1 MARCH 2018 SHOULD YOU WISH TO APPLY TO THE WORKSHOP ONLY, PLEASE VISIT THE RELEVANT PAGE http://indico.ictp.it/event/8457/ AND APPLY THERE   ICTP ICTP pio@ictp.it 25 Jun 2018 - 5 Jul 2018

Europe/Rome 2018-07-02 08:00:00 2018-07-05 22:00:00 WCRP Grand Challenge on Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity: 2nd Meeting on Monsoons and Tropical Rain Belts | (smr 3252) Preliminary programme under:  http://indico.ictp.it/event/8457/material/0/ The Workshop follows the ICTP Summer School on Theory, Mechanisms and Hierarchical Modelling of Climate Dynamics: Multiple Equilibria in the Climate System. Reliable projections of tropical rainfall changes are key to any climate adaption efforts in a warming world. Yet, our global climate models are a subpar tool for the task: their spatial resolution is too coarse to reproduce the deep convection that produces most rainfall in the tropics, and current parametrizations are inadequate – as signified by persistent biases in the simulation of the annual and diurnal cycles of rainfall in large areas of the oceans and continents, as well as the response to forcing of the past. Nonetheless, tropical rainfall is organized in the large-scale structures of the monsoons and the ITCZ whose dynamics are shaped by large-scale energetic and momentum constraints that involve the global circulation of both the ocean and the atmosphere. This suggests that building a coherent understanding of tropical rainfall can benefit from an understanding of these large-scale influences and their coupling with small scale cloud and precipitation processes. Making this link across scales to improve our understanding and our ability to anticipate future tropical rainfall changes is a key question in climate science. The workshop, building on the knowledge and practical skills acquired during the school, aims to bring together expertise on large-scale atmospheric and oceanic dynamics, small scale cloud and precipitation processes, hierarchical climate modeling and observation. The aim is to both review recent progress on tropical rainfall dynamics and to identify areas where progress is most amenable in the future given the existing and emerging modelling tools and theoretical frameworks. For the ICTP Summer School on Theory, Mechanisms and Hierarchical Modelling of Climate Dynamics: Multiple Equilibria in the Climate System, 25 June - 5 July 2018, go to link: http://indico.ictp.it/event/8318/ Confirmed speakers: William Boos, U.Cal Berkeley, USA Christian Jakob, Monash U., Australia John Marshall, MIT, USA Mahyar Mohtadi , Marum, Bremen, Germany Sonia Seneviratne, ETH Zürich, Switzerland Hui Su, JPL, USA Andrew Turner, U. Reading, UK Tianjun Zhou, IAP China ATTENTION: THE APPLICATION HERE IS FOR THE 2nd WEEK WORKSHOP ONLY. DEADLINE 1 MARCH 2018 SHOULD YOU WISH TO ATTEND THE SCHOOL, PLEASE VISIT THE RELEVANT PAGE  http://indico.ictp.it/event/8318/ AND APPLY THERE APPLICANTS WHO HAVE ALREADY APPLIED FOR THE SCHOOl ARE NOT REQUESTED TO APPLY AGAIN FOR THE WORKSHOP ICTP ICTP pio@ictp.it 2 Jul 2018 - 5 Jul 2018