Reviving some special moments of our 4th km-scale Hackathon in Hamburg

Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI), Hamburg, 4th – 8th March, 2024

The km-scale Hackathon was co-organized by the three climate science projects EERIE, WarmWorld, and nextGEMS and welcomed over 130 professionals from different scientific backgrounds, levels of expertise, diverse nationalities and a variety of institutions.

Participants were creating valuable output while hacking and got some inspiring input by talks and keynotes throughout the week.

On the first day, Eulàlia Baulenas explained what is needed to transform knowledge created in climate science into tangible actions and scientists Rohit Gosh and Dian Putrasaham shared the current state of the Earth System Models used in the EERIE project. Meteorologist Daniela Jacob held a key note about the challenges posed by climate change, affecting the lives of all of us and how the Earth Visualisation Enging (EVE) and the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) could be one step towards an international, joint approach to address and tackle these difficult times ahead. 

A second key note was delivered by Sarah Kang, the Climate Dynamics Director at MPI, on Wednesday evening. She presented her work on understanding the physical processes driving observed, unexplained cooling trends in the tropical Pacific.

Additionally, Daniel Klocke talked about the Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic Weather and Climate Model (better known as ICON), used by all three of the organizing projects. He introduced some of the aspects of the model that were improved since the last Hackathon and gave an idea about which challenges still need to be combated in the near future. Similarly, Thomas Rackow updated the participants on the improvements of the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) used in the nextGEMS project.

As a little treat, special side events were organized. These included a communal dinner, a world café, trips to the Wind Tunnel at the University of Hamburg and the DKRZ supercomputer Levante and a short Yoga-session to refresh the participants bodies and minds.

The closing session on Friday was used by the thematic groups to share their observations, analysis, challenges, and suggestions. Participants also engaged in a discussion about their opinions or concerns regarding the Earth System Models, future publications, and possible collaborations between different projects. This day was particularly special due to it coinciding with the International Women’s Day on March 8th, opening up the opportunity to especially celebrate the achievements of our female scientists, organizers and supporters.