KPA Colloquium
As part of the KPA Colloquium, lectures on the wide topic of Earth System Sciences are presented at irregular intervals. These are offered not only to geoscientists, but also to people from outside the field who are interested in the topic. No specialist knowledge is required.
The lectures always take place in presence at different times, partly as hybrid event.
The location is either the Geo/Bio lecture hall in Zülpicher Str. 49a, building 310c or lecture hall 4.001 in Pohligstr.3, building 410 (entrance: Höninger Weg 100, 4th floor).
The date of our first colloquium was 4 July 2023 (see below).
>>> There is no next colloquium scheduled at the moment! <<<<
List of colloquiums
Dr. Philipp Griewank: "Estimating the forecast benefit of observations through ensembles"
"The skill of a numerical weather forecast is tightly linked to the observing network used to estimate the forecast's initial conditions. To optimize this observing network, forecast centers are continuously trying to estimate both the benefit of current observations as well as the potential benefit of adding new observations to the network. For ensemble forecast systems, both can be estimated computationally efficiently by assuming a linear relationship between ensemble deviations of the initial state and a forecast quantity of choice. An important aspect of these methods that has yet to receive much attention is that they need to be provided with estimates of signal propagation, i.e., how the impacts of observations spread through the atmosphere over time. In this talk, I will illustrate these methods, their potential, and the importance of signal propagation using a simplified 1D toymodel, and show results obtained from a 1000-member forecast ensemble."
Dr. Philipp Griewank is working at the Institute for Meteorology and Geophysic, University Vienna, und is a former researcher at the University of Cologne, Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology.
Dr. Rita Borgo: "Designing Visualizations for Urban Sciences: Challenges and Opportunities"
"We have often heard the quote “a picture is worth a thousand words”, the question then is: “which words is it worth?”. In this talk, I will discuss research work in Data Visualization applied to the complex task of designing for spatio-temporal data in urban sciences. I will discuss its power of expression when faced with the challenge of diving through a sea of data when data are not only multidimensional but also multivariate in nature; as well as its limitations when faced with the challenges related to human interpretation. I will show the importance of research in human factors in visualization as a means and strength to create and develop new tools that enhance performances by leveraging human natural abilities."
Dr. Rita Borgo from the Department of Informatics, King's College London Strand, London, UK is a guest researcher in our KPA from 20th August to 20th September 2023 at the University of Cologne at the Institute for Computer Science in the working group Visualisation and Visual Analytics.
Prof. Dr. Michael Felderer: "Making Research Results more Explainable and Sustainable: Selected Software Technologies and Software Engineering Methods for Geo Sciences"
Prof. Michael Felderer is the Director of the DLR-Institute for Software Technology and a W3-Professor of Software Technology at the University of Cologne. The DLR-Institute for Software Technology provides highly-developed software and computing solutions for advanced engineering and scientific applications. The institute works on software engineering and current software technologies including Quantum Computing, Digital Twins and AI. The institute’s director Michael Felderer is an internationally recognized researcher in software engineering.
