This is the first online course in a series of three, aimed at anyone wanting to understand the basics of climate data offered by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Even without a climate science background!
Whether you are a researcher, advisor, policymaker, extension worker or educator - working in finance, insurance, urban planning, renewable energy, or any other sector - this course will help you gain the confidence to find, interpret, and use the right use C3S climate data and information in your own work.
This first online course introduces the foundations of climate data: what it is, how it is collected, processed, and made available by C3S. It enables you to make sense of the climate data types provided by C3S, understand their scope of use and limitations. It provides an overview of the C3S Climate Data Store (CDS) and other tools and services offered by C3S. Climate data types covered in this course include observations, reanalysis, seasonal predictions, and climate projections, with derived indicators covered in the next MOOC in the series
The first online course is structured around 6 modules:
- Foundations of climate data
- How do we observe the climate?
- How do we model the climate?
- Why do we need reanalysis?
- How do we make future climate predictions?
- How do we make longer-term projections?
The three online courses are being developed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) as implemented by ECMWF, and will be taught by ECMWF and European experts in Climate science. The three courses will be offered throughout 2026, one after another and building upon each other. With the foundational knowledge you gain in this first course, you will get the necessary building blocks for advancing and deepening your knowledge and skills in the subsequent courses.
You can find more information and enrol for the course on our e-learning platform Moodle.
All lectures materials are provided in English, and will remain online after the initial run, available to anyone who would like to take them as self-study, according to their own pace and schedule.