climdyn-labs

This repository will share labs and other computational tools for ECSC0202 (formerly GEOL0202) at Middlebury College.

If you are just here to explore, or if you are a student who's experiencing installation problems, you can launch a temporary Binder space by clicking the blue button below.

First time user instructions

You will need a conda environment with Jupyter, Climlab, and a few other packages to run these notebooks. Follow the instructions below to set one up on your machine:

The following commands will create a self-contained conda environment with everything you need to run these notebooks (Mac, Linux and Windows).

1. First, install miniconda following the "Regular Installation" instructions for your operating system, shown here.

2. Next, register for a GitHub account if you do not have one already. For the purposes of our class, I recommend also downloading GitHub Desktop.

3. Now, from the front page of this repository, click the green button that says "Code" or "Clone" at the upper right. Select "Open in GitHub Desktop" and click through to download the repository on your local machine.

4. Open a terminal window and navigate to your climdyn-labs directory using the cd command (see a basic Unix navigation documentation here).

   • If you are on a Windows computer: I suggest copying the full path of climdyn-labs on your system by viewing it in your file explorer and right-clicking the folder > "Copy as Path". Then, in an Anaconda Prompt window, type cd (including space) and paste the path you have copied.

5. Finally, from within the climdyn-labs directory, enter the following commands in the terminal (or an Anaconda Prompt window):

conda env create --file environment.yml
conda activate ecsc202
jupyter lab

Returning user instructions

If you are coming back to this repo to run a new notebook, and you already have the environment installed, all you need to do is

1. Open a terminal (or Anaconda Prompt) window and navigate to your climdyn-labs directory using the cd command.

2. From within the climdyn-labs directory, enter the following commands in the terminal:

conda activate ecsc202
jupyter lab

Pro tips

• Keep your local climdyn-labs folder in the same location throughout the semester.
• Use this folder only for labs. Do not create your problem sets in the same folder.
• When you are going to modify a lab notebook, change its file name to something like lab1-EHU.ipynb to distinguish it from the clean copy I provide for you on GitHub.
• If you have worked through a notebook but you don't need to save any notes to yourself, always remember to 'Clear All Output' before you save and close. This makes it easier to focus on important changes in the version history GitHub creates for you.