Data assimilation (DA) is widely used in the study of the atmosphere, the ocean, the land surface, hydrological processes, etc. The powerful technique combines prior information from numerical model simulations with observations to provide a better estimate of the state of the system than either the data or the model alone. This short course will introduce participants to the basics of data assimilation, including the theory and its applications to various disciplines of geoscience. An interactive hands-on example of building a data assimilation system based on a simple numerical model will be given. This will prepare participants to build a data assimilation system for their own numerical models at a later stage after the course.

In summary, the short course introduces the following topics:

(1) DA theory, including basic concepts and selected methodologies.
(2) Examples of DA applications in various geoscience fields.
(3) Hands-on exercise in applying data assimilation to an example numerical model using open-source software.

This short course is aimed at people who are interested in data assimilation but do not necessarily have experience in data assimilation, in particular early career scientists (BSc, MSc, PhD students and postdocs) and people who are new to data assimilation.