COMET Program Training Resources: Part of the Solution as User's Prepare to Embrace Environmental Satellite Advances

Are you up to speed on how to exploit new S-NPP capabilities and products? Are you aware Himawari has already launched and that GOES-R is launching soon, but unsure just how much better the new data and products will be? If so, don't worry because UCAR's COMET program has self-paced online educational materials that highlight the capabilities and applications of current and next-generation operational polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites. The COMET® Program (www.comet.ucar.edu) has long received funding from NOAA NESDIS as well as EUMETSAT and the Meteorological Service of Canada to support education and training in satellite meteorology. By partnering with experts from NOAA-NESDIS and its Cooperative Institutes, Meteorological Service of Canada, EUMETSAT, the Naval Research Laboratory and others, COMET's self-paced training stimulates greater use of current and future satellite observations and products.

Right now, over 70 satellite-focused, self-paced, online materials are freely available in English via the MetEd Web site at http://meted.ucar.edu/topics/satellite. Additionally, quite a few lessons are also available in Spanish and French making training more accessible to the international user community.

This presentation will highlight COMET's latest satellite training and education offerings that have been developed to educate users about NOAA's next generation weather satellite constellation including the GOES-R+ series, and S-NPP and JPSS missions. A recommended set of lessons for users who wish to learn more will be highlighted. We'll show how the lessons introduce users to the advances these systems bring to forecasting, numerical weather prediction, and environmental monitoring. The presentation will highlight other key new satellite training publications and describe our latest efforts for contributing to the preparedness of satellite users including NOAA's National Weather Service employees as they (prepare for)get ready to embrace these new capabilities.