ABOUT THE SCHOOL

ERCA is a course for PhD students, early career scientists and engineers from universities, public research institutes and private research or industrial organizations. ERCA is a high level international multidisciplinary course rooted in atmosperic and climate sciences, and extending beyond this scope to the social aspects of global change, to hydrology and oceanography, and environmental chemistry. It is our conviction that the challenges facing atmospheric and environmental sciences will require building bridges accross those sciences. It provides an excellent opportunity for the participants to broaden their scientific horizons.

The course also provides the ideal setting to interact and discuss research with lecturers who are leaders in their respective fields. This is fostered by poster sessions which will feature the current research of the participants. Participants come from Europe and other countries of the world (50 countries from all continents so far), in order to balance their cultural and scientific origins.

Since it was created in 1993 by the Professor Claude Boutron, 30 sessions have already been organised. They were attended by more than 1270 participants from 50 countries. ERCA 2024 will be the 31st session of the course.

The first and last weeks will take place in Grenoble. The second week includes 4 days at the astronomical observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP). OHP is located in a remote area, about 170 km south of Grenoble.It is one of the main French astronomical observatories, and hosts observing systems from several from several international monitoring networks : high atmosphere composition and winds (NDACC) ; Green House Gases (ICOS station) ; atmospheric aerosols (ACTRIS) ; surface exchanges with the ecosystem (O3HP).

The program includes lectures (about 50 hours) and visits to reseach institutes. Practical activities (in Grenoble and at the astronomical observatory of Haute Provence) center on environmental observations, from the instruments (LIDAR, spectroscopy, radar, in situ instruments, eddy covariance,...), to data analysis (phyton based), to databases and advanced environemental services (Copernicus). Part of the time will also be spent on a collaborative project : drafting a research proposal on thematics related to the courses in ERCA.

The language of the Course is English.