Scientific computing is an important requirement for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and has been identified to be a critical limiting factor to ECRs research, especially in Africa.

To bridge this gap, the GCRF African-SWIFT & Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) are organizing a virtual one-week intensive training course (7th to 12th June 2021) in the use of Python Programming for climate data analysis and visualization. Python has become the defacto-standard for data analysis and research, enabling and facilitating work not possible or difficult with existing tools (for example spreadsheets).

By the end of the course, participants will be able to efficiently analyze climate data and recreate figures suitable for international peer-reviewed journals as well as integrate into workflows at National Meteorological Operational and Research centres. The course will be delivered by experienced python programmers from University of Leeds, Ghana Meteorological Agency and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Eligibility

This virtual training call is open to all researchers in atmospheric science and meteorology, and to forecasters at operational weather centres based in Africa who have a keen interest in developing their data analysis skills. Applicants who are under the GCRF African SWIFT project and FCFA are highly encouraged to apply.

In addition, applicants with no or beginner level experience are welcome to apply for this training. A limit of 40 participants will be selected across the SWIFT project and FCFA African nationals, producing a balanced representation across institutions and gender.

The Training Course

This course will be a one-week virtual theoretical and practical training using python programming for data manipulation and visualisation to be held from 7th to 12th June 2021.

The course will:

• Introduce participants to python modules and packages of meteorological relevance,
• Manipulation of climate datasets of various formats using specific python modules and
• Visualisation of climate datasets with python.

Requirements

• Participants must have a computer and reliable internet access to participate in this training.
• Participants with no or beginner level python will be encouraged to familiarise themselves with python fundamentals found at https://github.com/leifdenby/swift-python-training-2018

Application Procedure

• Applicants must fill in an online application form at https://forms.gle/  by 30th April 2021. Your CV and personal statement as a single pdf or word document file.
• Applicants should note that their personal statement must clearly include their reason(s) to undertake this training and the potential benefits to achieving assigned task(s) which they are currently working on.
• Applicants should clearly state their current knowledge of computing within Linux OS and in Python (i.e. the ability to perform certain tasks with Linux and Python) and how you intend to apply the knowledge in your future work.

Deadline for application is 30th April 2021. Kindly note that only candidates who have completed the online forms will be given full consideration. Successfully selected applicants would be notified by 7th May 2021.