Cycle 3 Hackathon

Universidad Compultense de Madrid, 29 May – 2 June, 2023

Our Cycle 3 Hackathon was the biggest so far: 140 participants from Europe and Senegal gathered in Madrid. Partner Projects like MULMOD, DestinE, EERIE and WarmWorld took the jump into the rabbit hole, joined our journey and shared the spirit in exploring high-resolution next generation Earth system models.

Although the weather differed from expected, the heat raised while science was discussed, new things were discovered, computers were humming and groups were working on the new model output of our Cycle 3 runs, which included this time a new grid for one of our models (HEALpix for the ICON output). The nextGEMS Cycle 3 runs allow for even more physics since a new aerosol and a biogeochemistry model were integrated. Scientists dove into the ocean, studied blocking events, got more realistic representation for the precipitation and located nice fishing spots across the world. Some challenges remain but it keeps us motivated to dive deeper into the rabbit hole.

Beside all the hacking, two members of our Advisory Board shared their work with the nextGEMS community. Prof. Katja Fennel, Dalhousie University, introduced us to challenges and opportunities for biogeochemical modelling in the ocean. And Prof. Yukari Takayabu, University of Tokyo (AORI), gave an insight into extreme rainfall observed from TRMM and GPM.Prof. Francisco Doblas-Reyes, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, was invited to talk about the Destination Earth Initative, aimed at creating a Digital Twin interface for user-oriented climate information. Further, our Storms & Society theme held a workshop for nation-wide stakeholders from the renewable energy sector to create storylines building up on our renewable energy challenge.

We bring our community together in the framework of the hackathons to explore a wide range of scales and diversity of processes, and to exchange in experience, workflow and insights.

Even if neither the date nor the location is set for the next hackathon, the spirit of the hackathon will remain and everyone is excited about the second half of the project: the application phase!