Last week, from May 12th to May 16th, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) brought together more than 600 people to participate in the first global climate modelling hackathon, building upon the experiences gained throughout the preceding nextGEMS hackathons. Other initiatives, such as WarmWorld, EERIE, Destination Earth, and ESMO supported this endeavour.

During the hackathon, teams from Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and North and South America gathered at 10 different locations, the so-called nodes, to collaborate, exchange, and advance research in kilometer-scale climate modeling.

One of the nodes was hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in Hamburg. Here, over 120 participants were welcomed by Bjorn Stevens, director of the institute’s Climate Physics Department, who stressed the importance of exchanging and collaborating between different generations of climate scientists.

In this spirit, the participants spent the week collaborating with local “Science Teams” and gaining insights into a variety of research topics, using data from the newest runs of the ICON and IFS–FESOM models. The group “Energetics of Tropical Rainbelts”, led by Hans Segura, for example, worked on extracting the spectrum of convective coupled equatorial waves and Paulina Czarnecki’s team examined the high cloud top temperatures in storm resolving models to compare them between different models. A list of all of the topics investigated at the Hamburg node can be found here.

Previous to the hackathon, the scientists were encouraged to participate in a plotting challenge to get acquainted with the new model outputs and available data. This type of challenge was developed throughout previous nextGEMS hackathons to motivate participants’ creativity and generate interesting plots about phenomena of their choice. Below you can find a collection of the submissions. Can you guess, which plot won the challenge this time around?

During the hackathon, the groups were supported by a dedicated Data Support Team, made up of scientific programmers, data scientists, and model developers from the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ), the MPI-M, ECMWF, and AWI. This technical support group was also a feature that proved to be very helpful during previous nextGEMS hackathons.

Internationally, the different nodes stayed connected through virtual meetings, joint chat groups, and so-called cross-cutting activities. The latter focused on technical skills or data sources, useful for addressing a range of scientific questions and acting as a connector between scientists working on different topics.

However, our participants did more than hack and research together. They also had the opportunity to network and attend various side events throughout the week. For instance, Prof. Caroline Muller from the Institute of Science and Technology in Austria (ISTA) gave an inspiring keynote on the characteristics of deep convective storm systems, as well as the environmental and internal processes driving their growth. Some of the most attractive activities organized at the hackathon were the visits to the wind tunnel of the Hamburg University and DKRZ’s supercomputer Levante.

On the final day, each group presented their work, highlighting their results, lessons learned, and future research activities. Henning Franke’s group, consisting of Theresa Mieslinger, Hartmuth Borth, Chao Li, Quan Liu, Frederik Vieira Fischer, and Lianet Hernández Pardo, tested the hypothesis that mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) over tropical oceans are often triggered by mesoscale surface wind convergence. They looked at the evolution of surface temperature, precipitation, and how the wind converged and diverged at low levels — before and right after marine storms formed in the models. Their work showed how different models captured phenomena that impact storm formation. An animation of the mean precipitation flux and wind convergence up to 10 hours before the storm was detected can be found here. Going forward, the group wants to work on improving their code, extend the analysis to all simulations and to other trackers, and explore and deepen the connections of their work with other groups.

Concluding the event with a full-circle moment, Bjorn Stevens led a lively discussion around the concept of hackathons for the climate modelling community. Specifically, noting how such a format can and should be used beyond nextGEMS to boost intense networking and facilitate cooperation for better km-scale models while providing tools that support the users’ interaction with these models. 

After four days of hacking and collaborating together, March 28th, 2025, marked the final session of „The Final Countdown“ hackathon in Stockholm. Focused on the possible applications of Storm-Resolving Earth System Models (SR-ESM) in the renewable energy sector, this was also the last hackathon of the nextGEMS project. Some extraordinary accomplishments were made during the past 5 years since the start of this visionary project. The group was, for example, able to create 10, 5, and 2 kilometer-scale runs, and are close to release runs with a resolution of 1 kilometer. However, nothing stands out more than the solid and compromised community nextGEMS has built up through the years: talented and curious people working together to push forward high-resolution climate modeling and understanding the possibilities it comprises for a warming and changing planet.

The last hackathon day involved a small plot contest, won by scientist Matthias Aengenheyster from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). His visual shows wind gust speed and 2-minute averaged precipitation in an area around Japan for the coupled IFS-FESOM model simulation at 2.8 km resolution. Near the bottom, a tropical cyclone is approaching Japan, while another one near the top is transitioning from inter-tropical to an extra-tropical cyclone as it moves to cooler latitudes.

During the closing session, the five thematic groups were able to share their advancements with the audience. For instance, the Renewable Energy group talked about their efforts to monitor wind speed shifts in the central Sweden region with nextGEMS’ climate models, where some of the stakeholder companies had placed wind turbines. In parallel, the Storms & Radiation team shared their intentions to prepare 3 thematic research papers on diverse topics, such as climate sensitivity, feedback decomposition and tropical cloud organization—the last one with a special focus on deep convective clouds.

In an engaging presentation, some of the early-career scientists and first-time hackathon attendees who participated in the Storms & Land group, provided interesting insights of the snow coverage observations in the Iberian mountain range. Similarly, the Storms & Ocean team share their observations of mesoscale ocean circulation patterns (typically between 10 to 500 km in diameter) occurring at shallow depths, as well as their interest of observing the historical future of “El Niño” phenomenon. The Storms & Society thematic group conducted several interviews during the event and disseminated a final survey with the participants to finish their work on Climate Science storylines and the impact of hackathons in knowledge co-production. 

Finally, Climate Physics Director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bjorn Stevens, closed the event remarking some of the useful applications nextGEMS’ models have enabled, such as testing hypotheses underpinning climate change, studying changes at the mesoscale or blocking statistics, and the representation of hydrological extremes worldwide. Furthermore, he mentioned some of the forthcoming activities for the community, spearheaded by nextGEMS, such as the upcoming Global Hackathon taking place in May, 2025.

The nextGEMS project has entered its final phase and will come to an end in August, 2025. But before going separate ways, our project  members and partners gather one last time for the sixth nextGEMS hackathon from March 24th to 28th. In the stylish surroundings of Stockholm city, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the largest museum of the Nordic country, hosts “The Final Countdown”. This time, the participants´ challenge is centered around how the high-resolution capabilities enabled by nextGEMS simulations can support and enhance renewable energy applications in a changing climate.

The first day kicked off with the arrival of a diverse group of scientists, stakeholders, students, and climate enthusiasts that totaled 73 registered participants. Within the museum´s classic setting, the introductory session evolved into an active and engaging conversation. Representatives from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), updated the audience on the progress being made with the simulations of the ICON and IFS-FESOM Earth System models. 

Tobias Becker, researcher from the ECMWF, presented insights on two simulations at 2.8 km resolution, produced with 14 months of new data using the IFS-FESOM model. These recent advancements add local granularity and allow to check if atmospheric phenomena previously analyzed at coarser or less detailed resolutions also show up at this higher resolution. Additionally, he reported on two 30-year simulations – historical and scenario-based – at 9 km resolution that should provide valuable information on how extreme events change in warming climate, such as tropical cyclones.

The different thematic groups—Storms & Land, Storms & Ocean, Storms & Radiation, and Storms & Society— discussed their newest achievements and upcoming challenges. Dragana Bojovic, from the Storms & Society group, for example, talked about the survey analysis from the past five hackathons, as well as of the work on renewable energy and fisheries storylines. This time, a new group joined the Stockholm hackathon: the renewable energy group. This group includes not only researchers, but also different industry stakeholders, such as people working at Vestas, Satkraft, Anemos, and local participants, addressing future energy scenarios for 2050.

To conclude the day, participants took part in an ice-breaker session, which included a micro-poster activity designed to enrich conversations and connections through the use of visualizations. Some of the first-time participants in the event, like Diego Garcia and Antonio Robles from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain, shared posters illustrating their observations on historical data regarding snow coverage along the Spanish highlands and future changes in Tropical Basin interactions, created with the IFS-FESOM model.

The sixth and final hackathon of the nextGEMS journey is set to take place from Tuesday, March 25th to Friday, March 28th, 2025. We’re thrilled to invite our vibrant community and all climate modeling enthusiasts to come together for this special event.

This time, we’re heading to the captivating capital of Sweden: Stockholm. Our venue? None other than the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the largest museum in the country, providing the perfect scenery for four days of creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

As we approach the conclusion of our project in 2025, this hackathon will be a bittersweet celebration of everything we’ve accomplished together. 

Expect engaging interactive activities, opportunities to connect and network, and of course, plenty of exciting hacking sessions to tackle challenges in climate modeling.

Stay tuned for updates on our official channels, including Mastodon and LinkedIn.

As part of the nextGEMS production stage for our high-resolution Earth system simulations, a new hackathon edition has been launched. The fifth nextGEMS hackathon is currently taking place in the central Netherlands, in the city of Wageningen, renowned for its university and vibrant student life.

From October 14th to 18th, 2024, more than 80 scientists, researchers, students, and other representatives from across Europe, North America and East Asia gather for the „Hazard Hackathon“ at Wageningen University. Here, they can collaborate, network, and tackle pressing challenges related to fire weather, precipitation, urban heat extremes, and more.

On the first day, Chiel Van Heerwaarden, a researcher and co-organizer from Wageningen University, kicked off the event with a welcoming speech and general information for the week to come. Following, scientists Dyvia Praturi from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and Xabier Pedruzo from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) provided updates on the available ICON and IFS Earth system models‘ simulations.

Praturi encouraged participants to seek guidance and answers to their questions about the Easy Gems platform, while Pedruzo highlighted a recently published research paper detailing the advancements in IFS simulations.

During the opening session, Jasper Denissen from ECMWF introduced the audience to the Catchment-based Macro-scale Floodplain (Ca-Ma-Flood) model. He explained how its hydrological forecasts are being used in nextGEMS simulations and mentioned some of the Ca-Ma-Flood output variables that participants can work with, such as river discharge and flooded fractions.

Before the first day concluded with an exciting ice-breaker session that included some delicious local finger food and a round of pool and table tennis, Edgar Dolores-Testillos from the University of Bern presented the innovative structure of this hackathon. Unlike in the previous events, this time participants will have the opportunity to choose from five defined challenges: efficient data handling, fire weather, precipitation and temperature extremes and urban heat, energy production, and a „wild card“ challenge encompassing topics like tropical cyclones and extreme precipitation. Nevertheless, he emphasized that participants are also free to pursue their own or collective interests during the upcoming days of the hacking marathon.