S2S Monsoon Training Workshop

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An online training workshop on “Sub-seasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction of Monsoons” was held during 1-12 November 2021 in conjunction with the upcoming Seventh WMO International Workshop on Monsoons (IWM-7), hosted by the India Meteorological Department, and also being organized online during 22-26 March 2022.

The training workshop, coordinated by the WWRP Working Group on Tropical Meteorology Research (WGTMR) and led by an International Organizing Committee of 19 reputed experts in the field from around the world, focused on operational aspects of S2S prediction of monsoons and offered short courses to NMHS forecasters and allied scientists. A total of 27 lectures by renowned experts were organized in 8 sessions covering the following topics:

  1. Introduction and basic concepts;
  2. Regional case studies;
  3. Predictability sources;
  4. Data access and tools;
  5. Model validation and verification;
  6. Ensemble techniques calibration;
  7. Climate applications and services; and
  8. Good practices in S2S prediction.

A pre-workshop orientation course was also offered before the main training workshop on 13 and14 October 2021, to introduce and facilitate the data and tools to be compiled by the trainees in advance and to familiarize the trainees with the workshop structure and procedures, including the practical sessions.

About 100 participants registered for the workshop, most of them nominated by the Permanent Representatives of the respective countries with WMO, though only around 40 participants attended the workshop in real-time due to time zone constraints.  All the lectures were organized in a limited interactive setting with very active Q&A sessions and were also simultaneously live-streamed in the public domain.

The training workshop was organized by the recently established International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) supporting monsoon research under WWRP and WCRP, hosted by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) at Pune, India under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.  More information, including all the training materials (recordings as well as slides), are available at this link: https://impo.tropmet.res.in/iwm7training.php.