Satellite users are being deluged with an ever-expanding number of satellite products from an increasing number of environmental satellites. In many cases they are using products termed “experimental” from research web sites. Indeed, research satellites never intended for operational use, such as the TRMM and EOS polar satellites, are now being pressed into real-time service by operational agencies, even by U.S military forces in battlefield situations. The Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) plays a vital role in filtering and examining the huge amount of data/products available, and produces focused, highly readable tutorials with the latest information and guidance.

COMET is now preparing users for the upcoming advances of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (NPOESS) and the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP). By examining current products from existing satellites, including DMSP, NOAA, SeaWIFS, and EOS programs, we can foresee many of these advances. These products are featured on real-time web pages from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). NRL (Monterey, meteorology focus) has a suite of real-time Internet products that drew plaudits from military users fighting during the recent war in Iraq. NRL (Stennis Space Flight Center, oceanography focus) has a suite of real-time products showing a variety of high-resolution ocean color products.

The talk will describe how COMET is creating training materials that outline the proper use and understanding of these new products with a focus toward the upcoming improvements of NPOESS/NPP (“NPOESS UserPort”). First, personnel from the Naval Research Laboratory will demonstrate some of these products from real-time web sites. Then COMET will discuss how it is integrating these materials into meaningful modules. The ultimate goal is user empowerment from the very first day of NPOESS/NPP operational use.