The Climathon demonstrator activity is a high-level online course in climate data (time series) analysis that is specifically tailored to the needs of PhD students and postdocs, who wish to learn about an important combination of disciplines (climate change and time series analysis), but have had so far not much exposure to in depth statistical teaching. It will also attract professional researchers, who wish to update their knowledge or to learn new statistical techniques. We assume that participants come from somewhere in the range of climatology, ecology, econometrics, environmental sciences, geosciences, hydrology, meteorology, or physics. A specialty for GreenSCENT is the adaptation to the level of advanced pupils at schools.
The basic format means that this course focuses on basic univariate concepts, such as trends and extremes, and that we aim for easy accessibility also for those students who are early in their career. The online version emerged in response partly to the Covid-19 situation (which started in 2020), but also to the general upward trend in need of electronic high-level quality education.
What distinguishes this from other online courses? First, the course provides videos that have been designed, recorded and edited with care. You can go repeatedly through the videos and make breaks as you need. You receive and can study again the delivered course slides. Second, daily chat meetings via a video platform over the full course duration allow you to prepare questions beforehand and get extensive response. Third, own-developed software, specifically designed to get the most out of ‘;dirty” climate time series data, will enhance your arsenal of analytical tools. Fourth, the individual feedback period of two months post-course (via email and, possibly, online meetings) preserves the interactive mode of joint data analysis, it allows to go in depth through real applications — perhaps on your own data!
“I made a video on the recent flooding in Germany 2023/24. Drone footage plus assessment on the forcing by climate change”