Introduction to Unified Model

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Study the Unified Model

Dates: TBC 2025
Location: National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Fairbairn House, University of Leeds

The Met Office Unified Model is used for weather and climate prediction by forecasting centres worldwide. The Introduction to Unified Model course provides practical support for setting up and running experiments on this model, through a series of short lectures and hands-on workshops.

The key areas covered in the course are:

  1. The fundamentals of the UM modelling system;
  2. Running UM suites and using UM data files;
  3. Using the Rose/cylc application and workflow management system;
  4. Version control with FCM;
  5. Tools for working with UM files;
  6. Troubleshooting common problems.
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How to apply

Applications will open in 2025 dates to be confirmed

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Learning outcomes

We aim for students to:

  • Set up their environment in order to run the UM;
  • Run basic and more complex suites;
  • Work with Rose/cylc tools, including Rose for suite discovery, Rose suite editor, cylc GUI for managing running suite, and Rose-bush for viewing log files;
  • Make typical suite changes such as the run length, input files, output diagnostics, and scientific settings;
  • Diagnose and overcome common errors;
  • Find output data and log files;
  • Analyse UM data files using common tools.

    • Prerequisites

    We expect course attendees to have the following background knowledge:

  • How to use basic Linux shell commands such as ls, cd, mv, rm and grep;
  • How to edit a text file using a tool such as emacs or vim;
  • The concept of version control tools, particularly subversion;
  • The very basics of HPC, such as cores, nodes and batch submission systems.

    • Teaching staff

    Introduction to Unified Model is led by experts from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science Computational Modelling Service.

    Course schedule

    The course will be run over three full days in a classroom.

    Cost

    Full academic rate £431
    Educational discounted rate £317

    The educational discounted rate may be available to students or post-doctoral researchers not eligible for the subsidised rate.

    National Centre for Atmospheric Science subsidised rate £211

    Travel and accommodation

    Accommodation is not provided as part of the course fee and attendees should arrange their own accommodation.

    Leeds has a wide range of accommodation available including budget B&B accommodation, four-star hotels, self-catering campus accommodation, and serviced apartments. We do not endorse or recommend specific hotels.

    Attendees are responsible for arranging and paying for their own transport to and from the course.

    Terms and conditions

    Cancellations/ refunds

    No charge will be made where the cancellation is made more than six weeks before the date of the training course.

    In the event of cancellation made within six weeks immediately prior to the training course an invoice will be issued to the amount of a non-funded place on the course.

    In the event that a place can be filled by another student no fee will be charged.

    All cancellations must be sent in writing to training@ncas.ac.uk.

    Amendments and cancellations

    It may be necessary for us to change the content and timing of a course, the staff, the date or the venue.