François Counillon

François Counillon is a climate scientist and leads the Climate Dynamics and Prediction group at the Nansen Center. He obtained his PhD at the University of Bergen, as an employee of the Nansen Center, in 2008, and researched improving the forecasting of ocean currents in the Gulf of Mexico. He is currently developing climate alerts that close the gap between weather forecast and long-term climate change projections. Climate predictions will play an important role in limiting damage and societal changes as a result of climate change.

Counillon has expertise in oceanography, climate dynamics, and data assimilation. He develops innovative solutions to improve climate warnings, using data assimilation, modelling, and artificial intelligence. Together with the center’s partners at the Bjerknes Centre, he leads the development of the Norwegian Climate Prediction Model (NorCPM). NorCPM is our only national climate prediction system and delivers monthly forecasts and seasonal-to-decadal predictions to national and international projects. Counillon is also leading the development of the first supermodel for Earth system modelling, which interactively connects different models so that their systematic errors compensate. The result is a model with superior performance. Previously, his team developed the TOPAZ system, which is used in the Marine Forecasting Center for the Arctic Region in Copernicus. He has also contributed to several regional ocean forecasting systems for the South China Sea and the Agulhas region.