By Dr Andrea Jackson

Steam trains, debating, computer modelling and students from all over the UK combine to make a splendid sea side summer school. This year's Earth System Science Summer School (ES4) recently took place in the popular seaside resort of Scarborough. Twenty six NERC-funded PhD students and early career researchers experienced an extensive and world-class curriculum providing a broad and in-depth foundation in earth system science and its application. A staggering 52 presenters contributed to the intensive two week programme providing broad knowledge from earth, marine, terrestrial, atmospheric and polar science.

One of the highlights of the programme was a public lecture held at the National Science Learning Centre in York and given by Professor Lenny Smith who delighted the audience with his presentation 'The Bayesian's Burden: Or Why Physicists Shrug and Statisticians Scoff (As the Earth Warms)'. The event was well attended and well received with many questions following the presentation.

The following day the students travelled by steam train on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway as part of a day in the field exploring the geology and associated flora of the region. The day ended with a specialist lecture at the Rotunda Museum, one of the oldest purpose-built geological museums in the UK and home to one of the foremost collections of Jurassic geology on the Yorkshire Coast. The fieldwork was followed up with analysis of 25m long sediment cores provided by the British Geological Survey.

Students were able to practice their debating skills, with two debates taking place, both based around various aspects of climate change and both being extremely lively. Computer based practicals allowed students to investigate the effect of the spring bloom in shelf seas, understand data assimilation, and learn how to forecast the weather as well as many other aspects of earth system science.

The event provided an excellent opportunity for the students to network with the lecturers who are leading researchers, nationally and internationally. The students, although from a wide variety of scientific backgrounds built a very strong community amongst themselves and it is hoped that this will be maintained through the new ES4 alumni programme that will grow a larger community over time.

ES4 was run as a consortium between a group of NERC research and collaborative centres and university departments. The challenging programme was co-ordinated by Alison Coals and Felicity Perry from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and was based at The Ambassador Hotel in Scarborough. The event has received much positive and constructive feedback from both students and presenters and the consortium have already started planning for next year. The only difficulty will be deciding where to locate the event as the seaside resort proved extremely popular.

Partners involved in ES4 are:

- British Antarctic Survey (BAS)

- British Geological Survey (BGS)

- Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP)

- Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)

- Dept of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge

- Dept of Physics, Imperial College

- National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)

- National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)

- National Oceanographic Centre (NOC)