SSS06
St.Petersburg Summer School 2006
on
Nonhydrostatic dynamics and fine scale data assimilation
11-17.6.2006 Sanatorium Dunes, Sestroretsk
Report by the programme committee
(Katerina Kourzeneva, Laura Rontu, Aarne Männik and Kirsti Salonen)
The second NetFAM (Nordic Network on Fine-scale Atmospheric Modelling,
funded by NordForsk) summer school (SSS06) was arranged close to
St.Petersburg, Russia. 46 registered participants, including the
lecturers, from 16 countries attended the school during one week in
June 2006. The summer school was arranged at the PhD
level. Certicificates confirming the participance were delivered to
the students. The programme of SSS06 consisted of lectures, excercises
and participants' presentations on nonhydrostatic dynamics and
fine-scale data assimilation topics. In addition, social programme was
arranged, consisting of an excursion to St. Petersburg, football,
icebreaker and concluding banket.The venue of SSS06 was Sanatorium
Dunes, situated at the Gulf of Finland 40 km northwest from
St.Peterburg.
The SSS06 web site http://netfam.fmi.fi/SSS06 was
set up in February 2006 to contain the summer school resources. After
the school, a CD with complete material was produced (available
upon request from the organisers).
28 participants filled the evaluation form of SSS06. Their opinions
are presented in the attached evaluation summary. In general, the
school was considered both successfull and useful and the lecturers
given high marks on their presentations. (Only invited lectures were
included in the evaluation, not participants' presentations). The
combination of modellers both from the dynamics and data assimilation
communities into a common school was fruitful but also led to some
division in the estimates of usefulness of the various
presentations. The most general introductory presentations were valued
useful by most of the participants. The creative atmosphere,
discussions and practical excercises were appreciated most. Some
participants considered the school schedule (too) tough and the
programme quite demanding, suggesting improvements in the future. The
environment and arrangements of the school in the Sanatorium got high
marks, with some critical comments in details. The participants
considered the SSS06 web page with resources useful, and wished it to
be completed after the school.
During the school, ideas, plans and suggestions for further common
work and studies were raised and discussed. Just after the school, a
smaller working meeting on NWP research was arranged at RSHU at 17
June, to discuss some of these plans and those in the area of physical
parametrizations, and make practical suggestions within the
HIRLAM-ALADIN cooperation.
Aknowledgements
The expenses of organisation of the summer school and
costs of travel, accomodation and meals of most of the participants
were covered by the funding from NordForsk (Nordic Research Board, http://www.nordforsk.org),
granted to NetFAM (Nordic Network on Fine-scale Atmospheric Modelling,
http://netfam.fmi.fi). The local
organiser RSHU (Russian State Hydrometeorological University, http://www.rshu.ru) took care of all
practical arrangements of the summer school. Representatives of the
international numerical weather prediction consortia HIRLAM, ALADIN
and COSMO contributed significantly to the success of the school.
Appendices
School programme
Evaluation summary
Certificate of participation
List of participants