Winter School: Advanced analysis of atmosphere-surface interactions and feedbacks (3-14 March, 2025)
The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East – Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (EMME-CARE) project consortium, led by the University of Helsinki’s Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) is organizing the intensive course “Advanced analysis of atmosphere-surface interactions and feedbacks” (University of Helsinki course code ATMDP-003; 5 ECTS credits), which will be held in Hyytiälä, Finland, on 3rd–14th March 2025.
About the course
The main theme of this course is diurnal cycles in atmosphere-ecosystem processes: interannual and seasonal variation in different environments, including, for example, the Cyprus Atmospheric Observatory (CAO), SMEAR II, and several CarbonSink+ measurement sites.
During the two-week period, students will work in small groups utilising real long-term multidisciplinary datasets to answer the research question with the help of teachers and assistants. Students are expected to have at least basic data analysis and programming skills in some programming language, suitable for analysis and visualization of data (e.g. Matlab, Python, R). After the two-week period, students will prepare a report on their findings in the form of a scientific article.
The course includes short lectures on relevant topics, with the main emphasis on group work during the course and final report written after the course. The working days in Hyytiälä are about 8h long, excluding breaks, which totals about 80h of work during the two-week period, leaving 55h for the report, since 5 credits equals to 135h of work.
During the course students will learn:
1. How to set research questions and how to use multidisciplinary atmospheric and ecophysiology field data to answer them.
2. How to draw and evaluate scientific conclusions based on the data analysis.
3. Transferable skills on:
a. working in a multidisciplinary group as well as making and giving academic presentations
b. principles of scientific writing
c. project and time management skills.
Who is it for
The course is aimed for early-stage doctoral students (also advanced master’s students can apply for the course) in atmospheric, biospheric and Earth system sciences.
Course fees
For students at University of Helsinki, this fee is covered by the university. Students from other Finnish and Nordic universities will only pay for accommodation and meals during the course, totalling about 1046 €. Students from other universities will additionally pay a course fee (900 €, VAT 0%), all costs totalling about 2100 €.
The course fee covers:
- transportation by bus from Helsinki to Hyytiälä on 3 March (Stops: Helsinki city centre at 16:00 UTC+2h, Kumpula campus ~16:20 and Helsinki-Vantaa airport ~16:50) and back to Helsinki on 14 March, arriving in Helsinki at about 12:30 UTC+2h (same stops in reversed order),
- accommodation in shared rooms,
- all meals (breakfast, lunch, afternoon coffee, dinner, evening snack) during the course,
- course materials,
- all academic and social programme during the course.
The course fee does not cover any travel expenses from arriving to Helsinki and the University of Helsinki does not provide any financial support for the course fee or travel expenses.
Application process
Applications have now been closed.
Contact
For any questions regarding the course, please contact Ilona Ylivinkka (ilona.ylivinkka@helsinki.fi).
Organizers
This Winter School is organized within the framework of the H2020 Teaming Project EMME-CARE (emme-care.cyi.ac.cy). Course organization is led by INAR, University of Helsinki, with the contribution of the EMME-CARE Advanced Partners.
