Sustainable Software and a Satellite Data Hackathon- Outcomes from a UK Polar Network Workshop for Early Career Polar Scientists

The rapid growth in the number of satellites orbiting the Earth, with a significant fraction of these dedicated to earth observation, combined with ongoing improvements in the resolutions and physical processes included in climate and weather models, mean the amount of data available to earth scientists is constantly increasing. Being able to process and share efficiently the vast amounts of data that are produced (in the order of petabytes yearly) by the modelling and remote sensing communities is a huge challenge and one that is key for successful research.

Use of this data is essential to the polar sciences community, enabling the observation, modelling and monitoring of vast and difficult to reach regions. Yet often, early career scientists receive little or no consistent training on good software practices, coding and how to use big data.

Here we present the results of a workshop and hackathon held at the University College London's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling. The workshop was run by the UK Polar Network, in conjunction with the Software Sustainability Institute. Participants were informed about topics such as software design and version control as well as hearing about the uses of these techniques within both academia and industry.

Following the workshop a hackathon event was held, challenging students from a variety of university departments to tackle satellite data problems in an interdisciplinary way.

The outcomes and lessons learnt from this workshop are not only applicable to polar scientists worldwide, but to the broader earth sciences community. Although the focus here was early career polar scientists, aspects of the resources generated could easily be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate programs across the disciplines.