ACDC 2022 Practical Details

Course fee

The course has a nominal participation fee of 5000NOK (ca. 514USD) for each student. This will have to be paid with a credit/debit card online through UiB with a deadline on the 2nd of September - please check your email. Only those who noted difficulties finding funding to cover this fee during the application process will be considered for a fee waiver by the research school. CHESS students will be covered separately.

Note that the cost of the school per participant is significantly higher than the participant fee as we cover accomodation, food, buss transport from the train station, as well as lecturers, logistics etc.

Accommodation
We will be staying at Rondvassbu DNT cabin (part of the national natwork of mountain cabins in Norway). The weekend we will spend in the field including one night in tents (this is optional, but highly recommended)

There is no WiFi at the research station.

Current weather at Rondvassbu can be found at yr.no

Travel
Train from Oslo or Trondheim to Otta and then by bus to Spranget. From there there is a beatiful hike to the cabin (no cars allowed). The hike is 6km and takes approximately 1,5 hours. Note that you will have to carry your luggage, so please pack visely and use a sturdy backpack (see picture on this page - no roller suitcases please).

We have booked a buss from Otta station with departure Sunday the 4th of September at 18:10 (6:10PM) and returning to Otta station with arrival Friday the 16th of September at 13:00 (1PM). Based on these times you can book train/buss for travel from/to Oslo or Trondheim. All students are expected to take part for the entire duration of the course.

You will find train times here: https://entur.no and book train tickets here: https://www.sj.no - note there are more options than the SJ Trains (also buss services which you will find thru entur.no which has all companies).

The first possible train on Friday the 16th from Otta station to Oslo departs at 13:39 and arrives Oslo Airport at 16:32.

International evening
To celebrate all the nationalities represented at the ACDC Summer School, we ask participants to bring a food item special for their home country (this can be sweet or savoury). 

Student presentations

Each student will be given 8 minutes (max 8 slides) during the first week of the summer school to present a highlight form their research. Please prepare yours slides in advance and bring a memory stick to transfer the presentation at the venue (pdf, powerpoint or keynote).

Wifi and cell phone coverage

There is not wifi or cell phone coverage at Rondvassbu. However, there is 4G cell phone coverage within a 10min walk from the cabin. There is a possibility to call the cabin manager directly in case of emergency - you can find more info here: https://rondvassbu.dnt.no/engelsk/ We will bring a sat phone and a mobile data portal as a backup if there is critical data missing for the group projects. However, do not expect to be able to access internet during your stay at Rondvassbu - instead; enjoy your time offline with your colleagues and new friends.

What to bring
We want to limit the amount of garbage we produce, so we will not provide paper or plastic cups and plates in the field. We plan for a two night stay in the field.

• Wind and waterproof clothing (jacket and trousers)
• Warm clothes (wollen underwear is a good idea)
• Sturdy hiking boots (preferably water resistant)
• Indoor shoes
• Hat, scarf and mittens
• Backpack for field trip/hiking
• Water bottle (1L is sufficient as the water in rivers is safe to drink)
• Lunch box
• Plate, cup, fork, spoon and knife
• Thermos
• Bathing suit/shorts
• Sun screen, sun glasses
• Head torch (for field trip)
• Sleeping mat (for field trip)
• Sleeping bag rated to at least 0C (for field trip)
• Tent (optional, but we encourage you to bring it if you have one)
• Camera/Mobile (we encourage students and lecturers to share their pictures)
• Laptop (+ memory stick for student presentations; 8 minute presentation - maximum 8 slides)
• Travel insurance

At the cabin they sell snacks and a few basics, but there is no shop in the vicinity to buy items you might be missing. Be mindful of the weight of your luggage as you will have to carry everything to the cabin from the parking. I.e. everything you bring with you to Rondvassbu must fit into a sturdy backpack that you can also use for the field trip.

Rondvassbu cabin

Ronvassbu will provide sheets and bedding for use in the cabin. You will be accomodated in shared rooms (4 students in each) based on your choices in the sign-up form (please complete by 31st of August! and notify us of any special needs). There are no cars allowed at the venue, meaning that everyone has to walk to the cabin (2-3km) carrying in all their gear. If you have special needs please let us know in advance and we will do our best to accomodate.

Field trip

From Friday to Sunday in the middle of the course we will go on a two day/two night field trip starting from Rondvassbu cabin. To prepare for this you should make sure you bring all the items (except tent) on the list above - or ask one of your colleagues, peers to borrow what you are missing.

Program and reading material for the lectures
A tentative program will be made available before the summer school. See also previous years ACDC for examples (e.g. for ACDC2019 here).

The first week will be mostly lectures on fundamental topics, student lecture summaries, intro to projects and student research presentations. The second week will be shorter topical lectures as well as more time for group projects.

Reading material will be posted here and lecture slides will be made available to participants (after each lecture).

Student group projects

All students will be part of a group project during the course. Each project group will have one or two lecturers as mentors, and the topics will be announced during the first week of the course. Some projects will work with empirical data and/or observations and other projects will use simple models or numerical methods to anlyse data.

Please come prepared with a laptop, and if possible you should have your programming software of choice (python, R, CDO or matlab) installed to be able to run it offline. In particular, it would be an advantage if you are able to read/write netcfd files, temporal filtring, calculating trends etc and have the necessary libraries installed. If this does not mean anything to you - then you can team up with students who can share their knowledge.

Not everyone will be familiar with numerical methods, and the projects will be designed around your interests and skills + availability of tools. One goal of the school is to give you an opportunity to try something outside your main field of research with guidance and mentoring by lecturers and fellow students.

Python installation (to be completed before arriving Otta)

Please follow the instructions provided by Marysa here for istalling a python environment.

And dowload the following ACDC2022 scripts.