Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop
A UFS Collaboration Powered by EPIC
Monday, July 24, 2023 – Friday, July 28, 2023
Boulder, CO
This summer, the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) and the Unified Forecast System (UFS) will deliver a five-day Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop (UIFCW). Throughout the week, attendees will have the opportunity to present their research, learn about updates to the UFS, share challenges and successes related to UFS contributions, and voice their thoughts on where the future will take us from here. The workshop’s goal is to engage the greater Weather Enterprise in the ongoing effort to accelerate contributions to the Unified Forecast System. The theme for this year’s workshop is Innovation and Community.
Objective:
In-person registration is now closed, due to full capacity. Virtual registration will remain open. There will be no on-site registration.
UIFCW 2023 will take place from Monday, July 24, 2023, to Friday, July 28, 2023 at NCAR & UCAR Center Green Campus CG 1, 3080 Center Green Drive, Boulder Colorado, 80301 and online. This event is free to attend. Keep an eye out for additional information regarding after-hours dinners and networking events.
Save the date and check back for more details about #UIFCW2023.
Workshop Schedule
Schedule subject to updates. Additional information will be added as we plan each session.
All times are in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT).
Virtual Training Workshops UIFCW23 – July 24-26
Training 1 | Contributing to UFS/EPIC GitHub Repositories
Monday, July 24, 2023
8:00 am – 12:00 pm MDT
Does the process of getting started with the Unified Forecast System (UFS) seem daunting? For many new members of the UFS community, the learning curve can feel steep. This training session will be an introductory session on GitHub and community modeling. We will walk you through small use cases to check out code, run it, and commit an innovation. This training will give you an in-depth understanding of what it takes to be a part of the community and contribute your great ideas to advance UFS weather modeling.
Objective | Community members will learn to contribute to the UFS weather model and applications. We will show you how easy it is to start building, running, innovating, and contributing to the repositories in a small or large way.
Hosted via Google Meet. Limited to 30 in-person attendees.
Training 2 | Running UFS Land Data Assimilation (DA) System v1.1.0 in the Cloud
Monday, July 24, 2023
8:00 am – 12:00 pm MDT
Participants can expect a walk-through of the system and a demo of how to run public release v1.1.0, which includes updates currently available at the head of the UFS land-DA_workflow development branch. In the Land DA System, the Noah-MP land surface model (LSM) and the Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) software stack are used to assimilate snow depth data via the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter-Optimal Interpolation (LETKF-OI) algorithm. This training will show community members how to log into a HeadNode via a cloud service provider, run the Land DA System in the cloud, and evaluate output. Community members will walk away with source code to be able to replicate this on their own after the event as well. Learn more about Land DA here.
Objective | In this training session, participants will learn how to use Land DA.
Hosted via Google Meet. Limited to 30 in-person attendees.
Training 3 | Detecting Deforestation and Forest Degradation | Post Workshop Q&A
Monday, July 24, 2023
1:00 pm – 6:00 pm MDT | Workshop – Detecting Deforestation and Forest Degradation
Description | The Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer an immersive, two-part cloud technology training hosted by AWS representatives. This training will enable participants to visualize and detect changes in geospatial images using the Sentinel-2 dataset from the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI). The two sessions, entitled “SageMaker Notebook for Advanced Visualizations” and “Build Web Application with AWS Services,” will provide hands-on training with Amazon SageMaker, AWS Lambda, Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), AWS Cloud9, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon API Gateway, and more. This training highlights EPIC’s commitment to advance the Unified Forecast System (UFS) by leveraging the power of cloud technology.
For an overview of the workshop please visit: AWS Hosted Event.
Objective | This workshop aims to bridge the gap between the scientific weather community’s expertise in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and the practical application of AWS cloud services. At the end of the workshop, scientists, researchers, and contributors to the UFS will have a practical understanding of many useful AWS functionalities. By integrating their NWP expertise with AWS cloud technology, participants will be poised to enhance their contributions to the UFS significantly, fostering advancements in numerical weather forecasting capabilities.
Limited to 30 in-person attendees. Hosted via Google Meet for hybrid and virtual attendees.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
1:00 pm – 3:15 pm MDT | Post-Workshop Q&A – Detecting Deforestation and Forest Degradation
Description | This Q&A session will be facilitated by our AWS representatives. The session will provide an opportunity for participants to clarify doubts and seek personalized assistance regarding the application of AWS technology to NWP. This face-to-face interaction is designed to supplement participants’ learning from the workshop, address any challenges encountered, and provide further insights into AWS functionalities and their role in enhancing the UFS.
Objective | The primary objective of this open session is to reinforce the knowledge acquired from the AWS workshop, enabling a smoother transition of theoretical understanding to practical application. Through personalized assistance, we aim to ensure that participants fully grasp the AWS concepts, empowering them to successfully integrate these tools within their scientific contributions to NWP technology.
Limited to 30 in-person attendees. Hosted via Google Meet for hybrid and virtual attendees.
Training 4 | Running the Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application v2.1.0 Containers in Azure with Post-Workshop Q&A
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
8:30 am – 12:00 pm MDT | Workshop – Running the Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application v2.1.0 Containers in Azure
Description | The Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) is teaming up with Microsoft Azure to present an engaging workshop in cloud technology. This training is designed to enable participants to understand and apply the process of running the containerized Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application (App) v2.1.0 in the Azure cloud environment. Facilitated by Azure experts, this workshop will provide a thorough guide to deploying and managing containers using Azure Container Instances. We will also be learning about AZ-Hop, which is Azure’s HPC on-demand platform where users can easily set up the infrastructure to run Unified Forecast System (UFS) applications. This aligns with EPIC’s goal to expand the UFS by harnessing the potential of diverse cloud technologies.
Objective | This workshop is designed to connect the scientific weather community’s proficiency in SRW prediction with the practical application of Azure cloud services. Participants will acquire a comprehensive understanding of several Azure services and how to apply them to the SRW App. The integration of their SRW expertise with Azure cloud technology will position them to significantly augment their contributions to the UFS, ensuring improvements in SRW prediction capabilities.
Limited to 30 in-person attendees. Hosted via Google Meet for hybrid and virtual attendees.
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
1:00 pm – 3:15 pm MDT | Post-Workshop Q&A – Running the Short-Range Weather (SRW) Application v2.1.0 Containers in Azure
Description | This Q&A session will be facilitated by our Azure representatives. The session will provide an opportunity for participants to clarify doubts and seek personalized assistance regarding the application of Azure technology to SRW App v2.1.0 Containers. This face-to-face interaction is designed to supplement participants’ learning from the workshop, address any challenges encountered, and provide further insights into Azure functionalities and their role in enhancing the UFS.
Objective | The primary objective of this open session is to reinforce the knowledge acquired from the Azure workshop, enabling a smoother transition of theoretical understanding to practical application. Through personalized assistance, we aim to ensure that participants fully grasp the Azure concepts, empowering them to successfully integrate these tools within their scientific contributions to NWP technology.
Limited to 30 in-person attendees. Hosted via Google Meet for hybrid and virtual attendees.
Abstract Details
UFS Application | Short Range Weather (SRW) Application and Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS)
This session will highlight the scientific updates, achievements, and challenges of the UFS SRW Application, including research, development, testing, and evaluation of the 3D Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis System (3DRTMA) and Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS).
UFS Application | Medium Range Weather (MRW) and Sub seasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Applications
This session will feature cutting-edge research toward scientific updates, development, testing, and evaluation of the next-generation Global Forecast System (GFS) for medium-range weather out to 16 days and the Global Ensemble Forecast system (GEFS) for sub-seasonal ensemble forecasts out to 45 days based on the global coupled UFS MRW and S2S Applications.
UFS Application | Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS)
This session will feature cutting-edge research towards scientific updates, development, testing, and evaluation of the next-generation Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS).
Cross-Cutting #1 | Physics, Land, Verification & Validation
In this session featuring cross-cutting components of the UFS, presentations will feature cutting-edge research on topics such as scale-aware physics, land physics, verification, and validation, which impact multiple applications.
Cross-Cutting #2 | System Architecture
In this session featuring cross-cutting components of the UFS, presentations will feature cutting-edge research on system architecture-related topics that impact multiple applications.
Cross-Cutting #3 | Dynamics and Nesting
In this session featuring cross-cutting components of the UFS, presentations will feature cutting-edge research on topics such as dynamics and nesting, which impact multiple applications.
Emerging Applications | Coastal, Marine, Space Weather, and Air Quality
With an eye towards the future, this session will feature presentations about cutting-edge research towards the development, testing, and evaluation of upcoming UFS applications, including but not limited to, coastal, marine, space weather, and air quality.
Emerging Technologies | AI & Cloud Computing
This session will feature presentations from science community members on emerging technologies in artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Hotel Reservations
We have reserved a block of rooms at the Hampton Inn for attendees who need hotel accommodations.
Hampton Inn & Suites Boulder-North
6333 Lookout Road
Boulder, Colorado, 80301, USA
(303) 530-3300
Lunches are available to purchase and will be provided by UCAR catering during the scheduled 1-hour lunch break each full day of the workshop (Tuesday – Thursday, 3 meals for $60). Lunches must be purchased for all 3 days and in advance by Tuesday, July 11, 2023. No payments will be accepted after Tuesday, July 11th or on-site. If you are interested in purchasing catered lunches, please click here, and select Unifying Innovations in Forecasting Capabilities Workshop from the drop-down menu.
Please note that if you opt in for the catered lunches, you must pay for all three days. Therefore, in the “Amount to Pay” field, please type $60 ($20/day for 3 days).
Note: The nearest restaurants are over 1 mile from the venue and time is limited for lunch – 1 hour.
Important Dates for UIFCW 2023
May 2023
- 31st: Abstract Submission Closes (extended from May 19)
June 2023
- 23rd: Last Day to Book a Room via the Hampton Inn & Suites Room Block
July 2023
- 11th: Lunch Meal Payment Closes
- 17th: Registration Closes
- 24th – 28th: UIFCW 2023
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