Operational oceanography involves reliable, long term observations of the world's oceans and coastal waters, rapid interpretation and dissemination of data and generation of products and advisories that can be distributed to users in near real time. The recent advances made in observational technologies in the fields of sensors, platforms and real-time communications now provide capability to observe the oceans in detail. The winter school will focus on two aspects: Indian Ocean Circulation and Sea Level Variation. In recent years, the Indian Ocean (IO) has been discovered to have large impact on climate variability. Indian Ocean circulation vary differently in several respects from Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. The most striking difference is the seasonal reversal of the monsoon winds and its effects on the ocean currents in the Indian Ocean. Sea levels can be affected by many factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales. The careful measurement of variations in Mean Sea Level can offer insights into ongoing climate change, and sea level rise has been widely quoted as evidence of ongoing global warming. With advancement in research and technology, ocean models are capable of providing prediction of ocean state in terms of circulation and hydrography. In recent years, data assimilation methods have been developed and used in many research areas. The first application of data assimilation techniques were in meteorology and today it is a key component of numerical weather forecasts. Data assimilation improves the estimate of the ocean and atmosphere physical state by combining the data from measurements and from dynamic models in an optimal way. The winter school is jointly organized and sponsored by International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean), ESSO - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), India, Nansen Scientific Society and Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NERSC), Bergen, Norway and Nansen Environmental Research Centre India (NERCI), Kochi, India. The winter school will cover monsoon variability at intra-seasonal and inter-annual time scale and its impact on Indian Ocean Circulation, Operational Indian Ocean Circulation and Modelling, Data Assimilation for ocean forecasting, The Nansen-TOPAZ modelling system, Physics of sea level variations and Indian Ocean sea level variation. The detailed Program of the Winter School is available at http://www.incois.gov.in/ITCOocean/pdfviewer.jsp?docname=/ITC003/ITC003_ProgramSchedule.pdf

There is no course fee charged for the winter school. The participants are encouraged for self funding for their travel expenses. For few meritorious applicants travel costs will be covered by Nansen Fellowships given by Nansen Scientific Society. INCOIS will cover the costs of accommodation, local travel and food during the workshop. Last date for online application submission: 15th August, 2016