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Coordinated by  
Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake (FPCUP)Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake (FPCUP)

ERCA School - European Research Course on Atmospheres

Point of contact
Laura Sedaine
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
3 rue Michel Ange
75016 Paris
Phone: +33-1-44964325
URL: www.cnrs.fr/

Implementing Partner: CNRS
Implementing Country: France Primary Topic: Atmosphere, Climate Change, Copernicus Data Primary Target Users: Public Sector, Research Sector Primary Target Region: Europe Type of Action: National and multi-national information/training events
Action No.: 2019-2-39
Duration: Last Update:



This action aims at making the ERCA School an active contributor of “Copernicus Academy”. To this purpose we would like to further re-design the ERCA School activities (theoretic courses, practical workshops, group work) in order to:

  • Increase the students’ awareness of climate and environmental services, as defined, devel- oped and delivered by Copernicus
  • Give the students the necessary background to understand the construction of these ser- vices, and in particular the role of observations and models at the core of these services
  • Provide the students with practical tools to access and use this data

Created in 1993, ERCA has participated in training more than 1200 young researchers from about 60 countries on topics related to climate and environmental changes, mainly from an atmosphere point of view. This 4 weeks training combines theoretical courses, practical workshops and projects. The practical workshops rely strongly on international observing networks among which the European infrastructure ICOS and ACTRIS), and the theoretical aspects emphasize the concepts of data/model integration. These aspects are at the heart of Copernicus services, and it is the objective of ERCA to emphasize the complete picture: from data acquisition (both ground and space) to scientific under- standing and model integration, to data and services delivery to the public, to data retrieval and us- age from Copernicus DIAS. 

Our objective is to further implement a series of Copernicus activities within the ERCA School.

At the moment, the ERCA teaching content is built around three elements:

  • Courses on the different aspects of atmosphere physics and chemistry, the climate system and its current and past evolution
  • Practical workshops on monitoring instruments
  • Collective project to apply to simplified research calls for proposals

Parts of these courses are dedicated to remote sensing observations (principles and applications). Most workshops rely on French observations sites of ICOS and ACTRIS (Observatoire de Haute Pro- vence and “Col de Porte” station in the Alps). Our objective is to redefine these courses in the framework of Copernicus, with a special focus on measure integration in Copernicus services, and on data valuation.

A digital workshop, based on Copernicus data access and use will be initiated, in order for students to have a hands-on experience of Copernicus tools, with a focus on CAMS and C3S. Finally, the collective project will be oriented to fit in the climate services rationale.

We will also contribute to the ERCA policy for easier access of students from emerging countries.

Outputs and Results

  • ERCA courses will be tailored more towards Copernicus, through evolution of the taught content; a digital workshop using Copernicus data (CAMS and/or C3S) will be implemented and existing projects and courses will be partly redesigned to more thoroughly include the Copernicus framework
  • We will financially support students from emerging countries to attend ERCA, thereby disseminating the use and interest of Copernicus data and services in their respective countries, which are often suffering from infrastructures weaknesses. This will in time contribute to en- hanced involvement of southern hemisphere countries in the global monitoring programs necessary to sustain high quality services such as Copernicus on a global scale