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6th Annual Land Data Assimilation Community Virtual Workshop

27 – 28 October, 2026 Online

Technical challenges are the focus of this annual meeting as the scientific questions that lie behind those technical developments are typically the focus of other professional meetings and conferences.

The workshop brings together land DA scientists to highlight a range of data assimillation methods used across the community, discuss challenges facing different modeling communities, and identify strategies for addressing those challenges.

We welcome participation from researchers working across a broad range of land surface states and fluxes (carbon, energy, water, crops, fire, and land management), timescales (daily to millennial), and applications (weather prediction, agricultural forecasting, carbon-climate feedbacks, and climate change impacts).

This workshop fosters knowledge exchange, promotes the routine use of DA tools in a wider modeling community, and strengthens connections among land DA researchers. We seek to build a collaborative community that is inclusive of all backgrounds and career stages.

Daily Sessions

To accomodate participation across multiple time zones, each workshop day will include two live sessions: 

• 10:00 AM–1:00 PM China Standard Time (CST)
• 10:00 AM–1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

Participants are welcome to attend the session that best fits their schedule. Please note that exact timings are subject to change as the agenda is finalized.

Call for Abstracts and Community Input

We are currently accepting abstract submissions for oral and poster presentations that address technical challenges and advances in land data assimilation system development and implementation. This is an excellent opportunity to share your work, connect with colleagues across the community, and contribute to the advancement of the field.

One focus of this year’s workshop will be strengthening engagement with the Earth observation community. Effective land data assimilation depends not only on advances in algorithms and models, but also on a clear understanding of the characteristics, uncertainties, and complementarities of available observations. We encourage presentations and discussions that explore the benefits and trade-offs of different observational datasets and their implications for land DA system development.

In addition to research presentations, we welcome community input to help shape the workshop agenda. We are particularly interested in hearing what topics participants would find most valuable for discussion, including ideas for collaborative activities, focused discussion sessions, and areas where additional knowledge sharing would benefit the community.

Researchers across all career stages and areas of land data assimilation are encouraged to submit abstracts and participate.

Submit an Abstract:

Invited Speakers

• Katherine Deck (California Institute of Technology, Caltech)
• Alexander Gruber (Technische Universität Wien)
• Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen (Forschungszentrum Jülich)
• Ewan Pinnington (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, ECMWF)
• Haodi Xu (Cornell University)

Learn More

Learn more about the Land DA Community here: https://land-da-community.github.io.

Important Dates

June 22: Open call for abstracts
September 4: Abstract submission deadline
September 18: Acceptance notifications
October 1: Preliminary program release/registration reminder
October 27-29: Workshop dates

Workshop Overview

The 5th annual Land Data Assimilation (DA) Community Virtual Workshop will take place on:

• Monday, October 27th: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
• Tuesday, October 28th, 10:00 AM – 11:30 PM China Standard Time (CST)
• Tuesday, October 28th: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

Technical challenges are the focus of this annual meeting as the scientific questions that lie behind those technical developments are typically the focus of other professional meetings and conferences. To strengthen communication between modeling groups, this workshop will bring together land DA scientists to highlight a range of DA methods used within the community, discuss challenges facing different modeling communities, and identify strategies for addressing those challenges. We welcome participation from a broad range of research interests including land surface states and fluxes (carbon, energy, and water cycles to crop, fire, and land management), timescales (daily, seasonal to subseasonal, centennial/millennial), and scientific and practical applications (improving understanding of carbon-climate feedbacks, weather prediction, agricultural forecasting, and climate change impacts). This workshop continues to foster knowledge exchange and promote the routine use of DA tools in the wider modeling community. We seek to strengthen connections between land DA communities to tackle technical challenges and build a collaborative land DA community inclusive of all backgrounds and career stages.

Learn more about the Land DA Community here: https://land-da-community.github.io.

Calibrated Land Model Intercomparison Project (CalLMIP):

Planning & Development Workshop

CalLMIP planning committee

Natasha MacBean, Nina Raoult, Natalie Douglas, Jana Kolassa, Tristan Quaife, Istem Fer, Daniel Kennedy, Linnia Hawkins, Katie Dagon, Hannah Liddy 

Virtual workshop dates

The workshop will consisted of three sessions, each lasting 1.5 hours. To accommodate participants across different time zones, we are offered two time options per session: one for the eastern US/EU time zones and one for the Western US/Australia/Asia time zones.

• Session 1: Thursday, March 6 at 8:00-9:30 pm EST OR Friday, March 7 at 10:00-11:30 am EST (time zone converter)
• Session 2: Wednesday, March 19 at 10:00-11:30 am EDT OR Wednesday, March 19 at 8:00-9:30 pm EDT (time zone converter)
• Session 3: Tuesday, April 1st at 10:00-11:30 am EDT OR Tuesday, April 1st at 8:00-9:30 pm EDT (time zone converter)

Workshop overview

CalLMIP is a new initiative led by members of the Analysis and Integration of Modeling Earth Systems (AIMES) Land Data Assimilation Working Group and the International Land Modeling Forum (ILMF) Parameter Estimation Working Group.

This initiative is targeted at global-scale land models – i.e., land surface or terrestrial biosphere models that form part of earth system models, or intermediate complexity models and vegetation demographic models that are routinely run at global scale (for example for the global carbon budget).  

The overall goals envisaged for CalLMIP are:

• To quantify the reduction in inter-model spread as a result of parameter calibration for a wide range of variables (e.g., carbon and water stores and fluxes, aboveground biomass, soilC etc).
• To encourage the use of uncertainty quantification methods for constraining parameter uncertainty in global land models.
• To better understand and exchange knowledge on the variety of methods being used in global land model parameter calibration in order to identify best practices.

Workshop goals

• Discuss the goals of the 1st stage of CalLMIP
• Discuss the protocol, input files, data types/characteristics, sites and variables to be optimized in the first stage of the calibrated land model intercomparison.
• Discuss the post-optimization analyses that could/should be performed.
• Discuss future stages of the MIP and our vision for ultimate goals (e.g., to support the wide use of data-constrained model ensemble simulations for CMIP and TRENDY/GCB).

Who this workshop is targeting

Thank you for joining!

From the workshop

Thank you to those who attended the Calibrated Land Model Intercomparison Project (CalLMIP): Planning & Development Workshop! Over the course of three sessions, we made a lot of progress toward developing the experimental protocol. For those who were unable to attend but want to learn more or be involved, you can do the following using the links below:

1) view a high-level draft of the protocol outlining the decisions made so far,

2) view the intro videos from the workshop,

3) sign up to the mailing list below to stay informed of future updates.

DRAFT protocol for CalLMIP

Please note that this draft applies only to Phase 1, where the focus is on maintaining a simple experimental design. The aim is to assess whether locally optimized parameters influence inter-model spread and model–data comparisons at the global scale, while also evaluating calibration performance across models.

Final protocol decisions will be made by the planning committee. Once finalized, we’ll share the protocol along with a participant table where you can add your name if you plan to take part in Phase 1.

Sign up using the ‘Expression of interest’ button below to stay up-to-date with CalLMIP developments.

Workshop videos

March 7, 2025 | CalLMIP Virtual Workshop | Session 1

March 19, 2025 | CalLMIP Virtual Workshop | Session 2

April 1, 2025 | CalLMIP Virtual Workshop | Session 3

Timeline for the 1st stage of CalLMIP

• March/April 2025: 1st workshop to decide on protocol, data, sites etc.
• Fall 2025: Webinar to present the first stage protocol and gather feedback on CalLMIP’s future plans and goals.
• Summer 2025: Preparation of input and observation files and data harmonization by the MacBean lab for all modeling groups.
• Fall 2025 – Summer 2026: 1st stage parameter calibration experiments carried out by individual modeling groups.
• Presentation of 1st stage results at the 2nd Land Surface Modeling Summit (or equivalent meeting) and online webinar in summer 2026.

Registration for the planning and development workshop is now closed.

If you would like future CalLMIP updates, sign up below: