The international interdisciplinary PhD and Post-Doc research school on Observing and Modelling the Arctic – Climate processes, prediction and projection started today at the Nansen International Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NIERSC) in St Petersburg.  

All students and lecturers at the Nansen international interdisciplinary PhD and Post-Doc research school on Observing and Modelling the Arctic – Climate processes, prediction and projection outside NIERSC in St. Petersburg.The research school gathers more than 50 Russian and international participants for the next six days.  The 32 students and the lecturers have different disciplinary backgrounds in climate and Earth system sciences focusing on observations, analysis and modelling of the high latitudes and the Arctic.

 The aim of the research school is to contribute to bridging research and higher education related to sea ice, environment, climate change, and operational conditions in the Arctic Ocean. The participation from many countries and disciplines helps to sustain long-term international partnership and cooperation between Norway, Russia, India,
China, US and serval other countries through advancing research, higher education and recruitment within satellite Earth observations for monitoring and forecasting of the Arctic with further support to Arctic shipping and climate research studies.

The research school will provide the students with an overview of state-of the-art research in the Arctic from observations through process understanding to modelling of the Arctic for scientific progress and for applications. The research school comprises of five thematic sessions addressing: 

1. Observational capabilities: including in-situ measurements and satellite remote sensing, field campaigns and operational resources; 
2. Dynamics of the Arctic environment: what we know about the most important processes and how we include them in climate models; 
3. Surface coupling: a review of the multitude of surface coupling processes in the Arctic and current approaches to integrating this understanding into models at different scales; 
4. Climate projection and prediction: anthropogenically-forced and natural climate change in the Arctic, a perspective from the 21^stcentury and opportunities for climate prediction; 
5. Modelling for Arctic applications: using climate model results in other domains with examples from simulation of marine primary production, future shipping routes, and other industrial activities in ice covered waters. 

The students are organized into working groups according to their specific research expertise and taking advantage of their multi-disciplinary and multi-national background. Each day will start with four or five frame-setting interactive lectures under each of the major topics. The students will organize discussion groups and questions for the lecturers. Exercises and tutorials on the use of environmental data such as satellite remote sensing data, analysis of buoy data from the Arctic, data handling for climate models and simple energy-budget modelling will cover several aspects of practical climate analysis and research. In groups the students will identify topics of their expertise and interest and will summarize their perspective on this topic for a joint student report to be presented on the last day of the research school. The report will form the basis for a joint student publication to be developed after the research school, under guidance and support from the lectures.

This research school in St. Petersburg is in a series of research schools organized by the Nansen Centers and partners at Norwegian Academy for Polar Research/UNIS in Longyearbyen in 2017 and at the Indian National Center for Polar and Ocean Research in Goa, India in 2018. This research school is sponsored by the Research Council of Norway through the INTPART project ARCONOR: Arctic cooperation between Norway, Russia, India, China and US in satellite Earth observation and Education, The EC Horizon2020 INTAROS: Integrated Arctic Observation System and the organizing institutional partners. 

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Students and lecturers at the Nansen international interdisciplinary PhD and Post-Doc research school on Observing and Modelling the Arctic – Climate processes, prediction and projection at NIERSC in St. Petersburg.The organisations of the Nansen international research school 2019 in St.Petersburg.