Welcome Prerequisites Registration Travel support Program Venue Accommodation Contact

Welcome

The Hamburg Node of the Digital Earths Global Hackathon is part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Global km-Scale Hackathon, an initiative designed to advance the analysis and development of high-resolution Earth-system models.

The Hamburg event, taking place from May 12 to 16, 2025, will gather participants to collaborate on hacking, bug-fixing, and learning in a dynamic, hands-on environment. This hackathon is part of the larger WCRP effort to push the boundaries of climate system modeling and digital innovation globally.

For more details about the global hackathon and its objectives, please visit the official WCRP event page.

Prerequisites

During the Hackathon climate data from km-scale simulations with the Unified Model and other models will be provided in a Healpix format at different zoom levels. Jupyter Notebooks will be provided to explain the basics of the data handling. First examples can already be found on easy.gems. Participants can then develop their own Jupyter Notebooks or python scripts to analyze and plot the data.

Participants are expected to have basic knowledge of:

  • Linux terminal
  • Python, including Matplotlib, Numpy, Xarray
  • Concepts of data visualization
  • Handling of global 2D and 3D data in Climate science or similar fields

Registration

Quicklink to external registration website

Registration closes on April 21, 2025 and a registration fee of 150€ is asked.

! Disclaimer

By registering, participants acknowledge and consent that during their attendance at the global Hackathon, photos and videos may be taken and their contributions to online sessions may be recorded by an official for this occasion. This content may be distributed or published at the discretion of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. If you do not wish to be recorded, you are required to formally advise the organizers in advance.

Travel support

Supported by the projects nextGEMS and WarmWorld, we offer travel support specifically for early-carrer researchers to encourage their participation in the Hamburg Node of the Global km-scale Hackathon. If your ability to participate depends on receiving travel assistance, please write us by March 21, 2025.

Eligibility criteria

  • Master or PhD students in either physics, geophysical science, computer science or similar.
  • Applicants must be able to communicate comfortably in English.
  • Experience and familiarity with large data analysis, using Python or similar, is preferred.

Documents needed

  • Proof of current enrollment and latest BSc / MSc certificates
  • Letter of motivation (inkl. scientific interest and programme language skills)
  • Letter of support from a supervisor or equivalent, stating the relevance of the applicant’s participation

Application procedure: Please indicate in the subject of the Email that you apply for travel support and send in the above mentioned documents in one single (concatenated) PDF file. We will get back to you latest by the end of March 2025.

Program

The Hamburg Node of the Digital Earths Global Hackathon will run from Monday afternoon, May 12, to Friday lunchtime, May 16, 2025.

*Rough agenda (A detailed program will be shared closer to the event):

Monday, May 12

  • Registration/ Coffee&meet 2 pm
  • Opening session 3 pm
  • End 5.30 pm

Tuesday, May 13

  • Start the day 9 am
  • Hacking
  • Coffee break 10.30 am
  • Hacking
  • Lunch (individual choice)
  • Hacking
  • Coffee break 3.30 pm
  • Hacking
  • Open end

Wednesday, May 14

  • Start the day 9 am
  • Hacking
  • Coffee break 10.30 am
  • Hacking
  • Lunch (individual choice)
  • Hacking
  • Coffee break 3.30 pm
  • Hacking
  • Hackathon dinner (tbd)
    • program tbd

Thursday, May 15

  • Start the day 9 am
  • Hacking
  • Coffee break 10.30 am
  • Hacking
  • Lunch (individual choice)
  • Hacking
  • Coffee break 3.30 pm
  • Hacking
  • Open end

Friday, May 16

  • Closing session 9 am
  • Coffee breack 10.30 am
  • Continuing closing
  • End by 12 am

Planned side-program: Visit to the supercomputer Levante (DKRZ)/ to the windtunnel (MI/UHH)

Venue

The Hamburg node is hosted by the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany.

Central Hackathon location: Bundesstr.53, 20146 Hamburg

How to get here

By Plane

To get to the city center after your arrival at Hamburg Airport head to the S-Bahn station. It is indicated by overhead signs showing a white ‘S’ inside a green circle. From there either take the S1 in the direction of Blankenese or Wedel. The S1 will take you to the central station (in German: Hauptbahnhof), from there you find connections to all other S-Bahn lines, U-Bahn lines and many buslines for onward travel.

Alternate Airports

Bremen (BRE) - travel time to Hamburg Central Station up to 1h50min by train Hannover (HAJ) - travel time up to 2h30min by train Berlin (BER) - travel time up to 3h30min by train

By Train

If you choose to travel to Hamburg by train you will arrive centrally at Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. An alternative train station would be Hamburg Dammtor that is quite close to the hackathon location. But please make sure that your train will stop there. Not all trains do.

How to get to MPI-M

If you travel by U-Bahn, the closest station is Schlump (lines U2 and U3). The nearest bus stations are Zoologisches Museum (line X35), Bundesstrasse (lines 4, 15), or Grindelhof (lines 4, 5).

Transport passes for the week

Tickets for the Hamburg transport network (HVV) can be bought online, in the HVV-App or at the ticket machines found at almost every station.

The network is segmented into rings from A to F. If you don’t plan to travel far outside the city, purchasing regular tickets for zones A and B will certainly suffice.

For the duration of the Hackathon a weekly 24/7 ticket will be your cheapest option to travel around Hamburg.

Accommodation

To help your search for accommodation in Hamburg, you can find a list of hotel options. For easier orientation, the list of hotels can also be viewed on Google Maps.

Please Note! The weekend before the dates of our hackathon Hamburg celebrate its 836th port anniversary. Hotel prices may stay above their regular level. To avoid overly high prices, book as soon as possible with the option for flexible cancellation!