#OpenIFS2023

The 2023 User Meeting will take place from 22nd to 26th May 2023 at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

The First Announcement was sent out in November 2022. 

Registration for this event has now closed.

General Information

We are delighted to continue in 2023 with the series of OpenIFS User Meetings. Previous meetings were hosted at institutions in Helsinki, Stockholm, Oxford, Trieste and Reading. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Barcelona, Spain, will be the host of this year's event.

User Meetings are opportunities for OpenIFS model users to meet and showcase their research and to learn about new developments with OpenIFS. These meetings are organised by ECMWF for the model's user community and they are normally hosted in ECMWF member states. User Meetings offer a science programme with a combination of invited and contributed presentations (both oral and posters) and a hands-on programme with computer practicals. User Meetings do not take place every year and these events are an important opportunity for new and experienced OpenIFS users to meet, and to foster networking and collaborations in the OpenIFS model user community. 

Please note:  OpenIFS User Meetings are not training courses. If you are interested in the ECMWF Training Course programme please follow this link.

Programme

The scientific theme of 2023 User Meeting is “Atmospheric composition and impact on Numerical Weather Prediction”.

Keynote presentations will be related to this theme, however we also invite contributed presentations (oral and poster) from participants on all aspects of research with OpenIFS. The computer practicals will give participants the opportunity to work with the recently released OpenIFS/AC model which allows a user to simlulate atmospheric gas-phase chemistry and aerosol processes interactively.

This is a 5-day meeting beginning on Monday morning and closing on Friday mid-day. All presentations and practicals will be in English. 

Monday

The first day (Monday 22nd May) will be fully dedicated to giving an introductory overview to OpenIFS. This is aimed particularly at new users and participants who are not very confident with using OpenIFS. During Monday morning there will be short presentations on how various Earth system processes are represented in the model and an outlook on future OpenIFS developments will be given. Hands-on computer practicals during Monday afternoon will show new users of the model how to obtain the model source code, how to build the model, and how to run a standard forecast experiment. 

Tuesday to Friday

The scientific meeting programme commences on Tuesday 23 May to mid-day Friday 26 May. During the mornings this will include invited and contributed oral presentations and poster sessions, while the afternoons will focus on the practical sessions using the OpenIFS/AC model in a case study related to the meeting theme.

 It is expected that participants who join the OpenIFS introduction day on Monday will stay to attend all other days of the workshop. Particpants who do not wish to participate on Monday are given the opportunity to join on Tuesday 23rd May for the remainder of the week. 

Computer Practicals

We will organise computer practicals for all participants. These may involve group work together with other participants. Prior working experience with OpenIFS will be helpful but it is not a requirement. Prior experience in working with Linux (at user level) is recommended. 

We request that participants, if possible, should bring their own laptop to use for the computer practicals. The computer practicals will require the use of a web browser (for Jupyter Notebooks on the European Weather Cloud) and a WiFi Internet connection. 

Registration & Abstract Submission

Registration and abstract submission for the meeting are now open and will close on 17 March 2023.  

• Participants are required to register to be able to attend. Registration is free of charge and open to all scientists. Early career scientists are encouraged to apply.
• Due to classroom size the number of participants is limited to 50 places. Participation is moderated and the organisers will have to approve your application.
• We encourage all participants to submit an abstract. However, it is also possible to register without abstract submission. When submitting your abstract you will be asked if you prefer an oral or poster presentation. After reviewing the abstracts we will inform you by email about acceptance. 
• A mid-week conference dinner is included with registration. Coffee and tea will be provided, other meals need to be purchased.

Visa / Letter of invitation

If you require a letter of invitation to this meeting, please indicate this in the registration form.

Financial Support

The European Meteorological Society (EMS) invites applications for a Young Scientist Conference Award (YSCA) to support the participation of young scientists at the OpenIFS User Meeting. The award includes financial support for travel expenditures of 500€.

Applicants who wish to be considered for financial support by the EMS will need to apply directly on the web page of the Award Scheme (see the web link below), following the application procedure detailed in the section titled "6th OpenIFS User Meeting | Barcelona | May 2023" :

https://www.emetsoc.org/awards/award-category/young-scientist-conference-awards/

Please note that the deadline for applying for financial support is earlier than the registration deadline on Friday 3rd March 2023.

Accommodation and Travel

Barcelona is a popular tourist destination during the entire year and we therefore recommend to make travel arrangements as early as possible.

The local organising team recommends the following hotels: 

Web links to hotel booking sites

Below are web links to popular hotel booking services
(by clicking on these links you will leave the ECMWF web site)

• Google Hotel Search  (in Barcelona)
• Skyscanner Hotels  (in Barcelona)
• Tripadvisor  (in Barcelona)
• Expedia  (near Barcelona Supercomputing Center)
• Booking.com (near Barcelona Supercomputing Center)
• Trivago  (in Barcelona)