Course Content
- An introduction to Data Assimilation
eLearning
An introduction to Data Assimilation
Data assimilation is used in NWP to define ‘optimal' initial conditions for numerical forecasts. In this lesson you will define data assimilation and explore how it is used at ECMWF.
Last updated: 4 December 2025
Fundamentals
Certification not available
40 minutes
Single module
What you'll learn
- What is data assimilation and how it fits into numerical weather prediction
- Which sources of observations are used by ECMWF in its data assimilation process
- How data assimilation methods work, including 4D- VAR
- Recent improvements in data assimilation, and future challenges