Purpose of this course

This course will help you to develop:

• statistical expertise necessary for atmospheric and climate research

• an ability to choose appropriate analysis methods

• the practical skills needed to apply statistical methods

• the ability to critically interpret the results of analyses

• a deeper appreciation of statistical science

Many important topics will be covered but not at very great depth due to time limitations. Instead, it is hoped that this course will provide you with the basic understanding and skills necessary for applying and interpreting statistics in climate and environmental research. The underlying concepts and pitfalls of various methods will be explained in order to avoid you treating statistical analyses as magical ``black box'' numerical recipes.