A week of collaboration and discovery at the Science Hub with University of Edinburgh and University of Leeds
- Post by: Anca Anghelea
- November 16, 2023
Recently, the Science Hub hosted the first “Earth System Science Workshop” organized in collaboration with the doctoral school of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leeds, led by Professor Kathy Whaler. During the week-long workshop, a dozen PhD students from the two universities learned about the research activities at ESRIN, engaged with ESA EO scientists, and explored the opportunities for scientific research with the Deep Earth System Data Lab (DeepESDL).
The workshop main goal was to bring together PhD students allowing them to work on and explore the scientific potential of multivariate datasets and analytics capabilities provided by the platform Deep Earth System Data Lab (DeepESDL) as “early adopters” of the platform. The open platform (accessible openly and with ESA sponsorship from the Network of Resources) provides access to analysis-ready datacubes of geophysical and environmental variables, housed in a cloud-native format within an AI-ready virtual laboratory.
The workshop had an intense hands-on component, in which the students worked in small teams to address a specific scientific challenge using the data and analytical capabilities of the DeepESDL. Led by Professor Miguel Mahecha, the DeepESDL science team explored key concepts, empowering students to investigate themes such as coupling of land and atmosphere, analysis trends and detecting time-scale dependencies, observing time dynamic structures in Earth data, performing dimensionality reduction, characterizing compound extreme events, and working with multivariate data cubes (causal inferences, gapfilling, or segmenting cubes).
The location of the workshop in ESA-ESRIN Science Hub enabled the participants to have direct interactions with ESA EO mission managers and scientists, as well as with Phi-Lab researchers. The networking opportunities during the workshop were an important part of the overall experience for visiting students giving them a chance to explore career possibilities for young researchers in ESRIN.
The Science Hub fosters and promotes an Open approach to Earth science, and such workshops are great opportunities for students to engage with experts, exchange knowledge and gain insights that can help them in their research.
If you found this useful and are interested to organize something similar for your doctoral school, please contact us at ScienceHub@esa.int.