[RegCNET] 2010 ICTP RegCM Workshop - news 1

[giorgi]

Dear RegCNETers

with this email I wanted to open a communication line on next year's 
by-annual RegCM ICTP workshop.

The workshop will be held during the two-week period 31 may - 11 June 
2010. The agenda of ICTP activities will soon go on the ICTP web site so 
you can check developments. The Poster will likely come out in early fall 
with an end-of-year or early 2010 deadline for application, so keep your 
eyes open.

Next year workshop will be important for a few reasons, so I hope many of 
you will be able to attend.

First, we hope to release a significantly updated version of the model. 
Among the main updates, what we hope to have is:

1) A version including the CLM land model (A Steiner)
2) A version including a new semi-lagrangian advection scheme
that should allow the model to run considerably faster (G. Tefera Diro)
3) A version with full aerosol and chemistry coupling (A. Zakey)
4) A version with ocean coupling (ENEA)
5) Maybe something else I am now forgetting

all these items are already available or in advanced state of development 
in one form or another and we just need to put them together into one or 
multiple public versions of the model.

Among the items that we are definitely planning to include, but are unsure 
whether they will be ready by next June are:

1) Improved simple cloud microphysics including cloud ice and first-order\
    interaction with aerosols (this could be easily done, we just need to
    find the time to do it).

2) Development of a non-hydrostatic dynamical core (we are working on this
    with L. Bonaventura at the U. Milano and hope to have something in a
    few years).

Second, we hope that at the workshop we can see some results from the 
first Hyper-Matrix experiments, which are now tied to the broader CORDEX 
international framework (if you do not know about this there will be a 
web-site shortly that you can access to get some info, will let you know 
when this happens). This will be quite exciting.

Third, I would like to produce a special issue of a high visibility 
journal coming out of the workshop papers. This will give even more 
visibility to our community.

So, at this point I would like to ask you the following:

a) Please plan on attending the workshop, there is plenty of time to 
prepare. In this regard, the funding for the workshop will be relatively 
limited because of the budget restrictions the ICTP is facing. So this 
time we will use much more than in the past the cost-sharing option. If 
there are funding sources you can access to participate to the workshop 
(particularly fro the travel tickets), please consider them and if we can 
help in any ways let me know. Again there is plenty of time to plan.

b) Check periodically the ICTP site so as not to miss the deadline. 
Anyways, as soon as the poster is ready I will inform you.

c) Plan on putting together a paper for the special issue. You may start 
doing the work now to have some material by then. Again, I would like the 
papers to be submitted not long after the workshop, so the material needs 
to be mostly ready by the workshop time. In fact, we could have a special 
worshop session to discuss and fine-tune your papers.

I hope you are as excited as I am about the workshop, and hope we can make 
it a great success as in the past.

more news in due time,    Cheers,   Filippo Giorgi (and the RegCM Team)

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# Filippo Giorgi, Head                                         #
# Earth System Physics Section                                 #
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# email: giorgi at ictp.it                                        #
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