MCRN is a network, associated with CliMathNet, that links researchers across the US to develop the mathematics needed to better understand the Earth's climate.

CliMathNet supports researchers who would like to link up with MCRN members through a funding stream called NSF link funding. This funding provides up to £1500 for T&S costs for international travel to an MCRN meeting, or up to £500 for a UK based meeting with an MCRN international member. Please see the CliMathNet website for more information about this funding: http://www.climathnet.org/forresearchers/funding/

To find out more about MCRN, forthcoming meetings that are planned, and information about becoming a member, please see the website www.mathclimate.org/. To join the MCRN, please send an email expressing interest to [log in to unmask]

The creation of a new Mathematics of Planet Earth Centre for Doctoral Training was announced on 22nd November by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The new £16million training centre, a partnership between Imperial College London and the University of Reading, will provide mathematical training spanning all the way from data-driven statistics to creating models of the Earth system.

For more information, see the press release from the University of Reading: www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR548624.aspx and Mathematics of Planet Earth website: http://mpecdt.org/

This meeting is being held at the University of Warwick on 20th December 2013. Further details of the programme are below. Please see the website for more information and to register www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/research/grants/equip/events/uqip

Programme

0900-0925 Registration in the MRC Room B1.37

0930-1010 Omar Ghattas (University of Texas at Austin) Bayesian inverse modeling of the flow of the Antarctic ice sheet

1015-1100 Yousef Marzouk (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Dimension reduction and forward model approximation for Bayesian inverse problems

1100-1125 Coffee in the Mathematics Institute Common Room

1130-1210 Dean Oliver (Uni Centre for Integrated Petroleum Research, Bergen) Ensemble-based methods for petroleum history matching and uncertainty quantification

1215-1255 Andrew Lorenc (Met Office) The Bayesian basis of data assimilation for numerical weather prediction

1300-1355 Lunch in the Mathematics Institute Common Room

Outline proposals are invited under a new Research Programme - Drivers of Variability in Atmospheric Circulation: European Climate.

This four-year programme aims to understand at a process level the drivers of variability in atmospheric circulation, and use this knowledge to improve models and predictions of European climate on seasonal to decadal timescales. It will try to explain the recent harsh winters, heat waves and wet summers that the UK has experienced by exploiting large-scale observations combined with climate modelling and theoretical work.

£2.2m is available to fund two projects, at least one of which will focus on summer variability. The UK Met Office will provide in-kind contributions of model output and resources to facilitate joint working with complementary projects.

The closing date is for outline applications is 23rd January 2014.

Please find Announcement of Opportunity and Outline proforma documents and all further details of the call and how to apply via the following link: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/atmospheric/

Mathematics and Climate is a timely textbook aimed at students and researchers in mathematics and statistics who are interested in current issues of climate science, as well as at climate scientists who wish to become familiar with qualitative and quantitative methods of mathematics and statistics. The authors emphasize conceptual models that capture important aspects of Earth's climate system and present the mathematical and statistical techniques that can be applied to their analysis. Topics from climate science include the Earth’s energy balance, temperature distribution, ocean circulation patterns such as El Niño–Southern Oscillation, ice caps and glaciation periods, the carbon cycle, and the biological pump. Among the mathematical and statistical techniques presented in the text are dynamical systems and bifurcation theory, Fourier analysis, conservation laws, regression analysis, and extreme value theory.
The following features make Mathematics and Climate a valuable teaching resource: issues of current interest in climate science and sustainability are used to introduce the student to the methods of mathematics and statistics; the mathematical sophistication increases as the book progresses and topics can thus be selected according to interest and level of knowledge; each chapter ends with a set of exercises that reinforce or enhance the material presented in the chapter and stimulate critical thinking and communication skills; and the book contains an extensive list of references to the literature, a glossary of terms for the nontechnical reader, and a detailed index.

Audience
Mathematics and Climate is intended for mathematicians, statisticians, data scientists, and geoscientists in academia, national laboratories, and public service organizations interested in current issues of climate and sustainability. It is written at the level of advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students and assumes only basic familiarity with linear algebra, calculus, elementary differential equations, and statistics.

About the Authors
Hans Kaper is affiliated with Georgetown University and is Co-Director of the Mathematics and Climate Research Network (www.mathclimate.org). He spent most of his professional career at Argonne National Laboratory and served as Program Director for Applied Mathematics at the National Science Foundation. He is a Corresponding Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and was named a SIAM Fellow in 2009. He is the (co-)author of four books and more than 100 articles in refereed journals. Dr. Kaper is Editor-in-Chief of SIAM News, a member of the SIAM Committee on Science Policy, and Chair of the SIAM Activity Group on Dynamical Systems. He is interested in the mathematics of physical systems.

Hans Engler is Professor of Mathematics at Georgetown University, where he has been since 1984 and served as Department Chair in the 1990s. He has also served as Program Director for Applied Mathematics at the National Science Foundation. He was the Founding Director of Georgetown University’s MS program in mathematics and statistics. His research interests are in mathematics, statistics, and computing and their applications to physical and societal problems. He also does mathematical and statistical consulting work for government agencies and private companies.

Registration has now opened for several training courses that NCAS are running over the next few months:

* ES4
* Advanced Statistics Training for Climate Research
* Introduction to Scientific Computing
* Introduction to the Unified Model
* Introduction to UKCA

Further details about all of the courses can be found below and registration is open on the NCAS website http://www.ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/nerc-ppsda-schools

If you have questions, please contact NCAS Education and Staff Development Manager [log in to unmask]

ES4: March 30 - Friday April 11 2014, University of Lancaster The Earth System Science Spring School (ES4) 2014 will take place in Lancaster between 30th March and 11th April. ES4 provides PhD students and early-career researchers with a broad foundation in earth system science and its applications. The school is managed by NCAS and involves several major UK research institutes allowing access to the knowledge and expertise of renowned scientists. ES4 will deliver an intensive programme including earth, marine, terrestrial, atmospheric and polar science.

New courses
NCAS has received funding from NERC for several pilot courses. Priority will be given to NERC students and researchers in the first instance, but anyone interested should book a place and all applications will be considered after the closing date.

Advanced Statistics Training for Climate Research: December 17-19 2013, University of Exeter

This course is being run by the University of Exeter in conjunction with NCAS This is an intensive short course on statistical modelling concepts for climate scientists. Since it is impossible in such a short course to go into any great depth, this course aims instead to convey the fundamental modelling concepts in statistics and an understanding and ability of how to use them correctly to interpret climate data. The course will consist of nine lectures interspersed with multiple hands-on computer sessions using the freely available R language.

Learning Outcomes
* Deeper appreciation of statistical modelling
* Awareness of some relevant areas of advanced statistics
* Ability to apply methods intelligently using the R statistical language Introduction to Scientific Computing: March 17-20 2014, University of York A four day Software Carpentry course covering topics such as the shell, basic introduction to python programming and data handling. At the end of this course students will be equipped to start using computers for cutting edge environmental science.

Introduction to the Unified Model: March 25-26 2014, University of York This course introduces new users to the Unified Model systems and provides practical experience of setting up and running experiments. UM software management system, file formats, utilities, and configurations are discussed.Users will be led through a series of exercises designed to encourage best practice and scientific exploitation of the ESM.

Introduction to UKCA: March 27-28 2014, University of York This course introduces new users to the UKCA systems and provides practical experience of setting up and running experiments. Users will be led through a series of exercises designed to encourage best practice and scientific exploitation of the ESM.