NASA Summer School Brings Together the Next Generation of Climate Scientists

The JPL Center for Climate Science and the Keck Institute for Space Studies organised the 2023 NASA Summer School on Satellite Observation and Climate Models. The summer school received applications from around the world, and twenty-four participants were selected to attend. This year’s summer school topic was "Using Satellite Observations to Advance Climate Models".

The summer school took place at the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Participants could engage with premier climate scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and elsewhere. DPhil Student Sara Abdelaziz was selected to attend the summer school and reports back on her experience:

“The program brought together students, researchers, and professionals from various backgrounds and locations, providing excellent networking opportunities, collaboration, and mentorship. Moreover, the talks delivered by scientists in climate modelling offered great exposure to the latest research trends, technologies, and methodologies on climate model diagnostics and evaluation and remote sensing of the planet, helping stay up to date in the field.”

The inaugural summer school was held in 2011. Key themes of the 2023 summer school were:

• Global Climate Models
• Satellite Remote Sensing
• Climate Model Diagnostics and Evaluation

“Attending the NASA summer school provided me with hands-on training and instruction from experts in the field on how satellite observations can be used to evaluate and improve climate models. It was a great opportunity to communicate with scientists about investigating global warming using multiple weather data sets and provide a presentation about it with my colleagues on the project. The experience has helped me develop practical skills in climate modelling and data analysis, which are highly valuable in research and professional settings. Also, the summer school provides access to state-of-the-art facilities, data, and computational resources, which greatly enhanced my research capabilities.”

Sara Abdelaziz is a recipient of the Schlumberger Scholarship through the Faculty for the Future program; and is currently pursuing a DPhil in Engineering Science. Her area of research centres on developing plans for renewable energy sources that consider the effects of climate change and the necessary siting criteria to reach the net-zero target in the future.

“The summer school at NASA was inspiring and motivating. It allowed me to work alongside experts passionate about understanding and addressing climate change. It could impact our understanding of climate systems and their implications for our planet.”