As a new important resource, the recently built Warning Decision Training Brach (WDTB) Research and Training (WRAT) lab has been performing as an important role in enhancing the interactive learning in workshops, such as the NOAA’s NWS Advanced Warning Operations Course (AWOC) and Distance Learning Operations Course (DLOC), within the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) Display Two Dimensions (D2D) environment. WDTB has developed computer application tools and techniques that fully support various training strategies, functions and objectives, as well as different simulation types. Currently included are customized lab versions of the Weather Event Simulator (WES) and Weather Event Simulator Scripting Language (WESSL), providing a simulated but realistic environment for interactive learning. WDTB staff can quickly reconfigure the lab in various geometries to support running simulations on all lab machines, several separated small groups of machines, or simply on each individual computer. These capabilities allow participants to practice inter- and intra-office coordination and cooperation, respond to changing weather conditions by restructuring workload, and deliver realistic forecasts and warnings all within a short training period.

The lab also provides an opportunity for applied research where newly designed techniques and tools can be used in a simulated operational environment and subsequently transferred to the NWS community. This presentation will provide an overview of the planned training research including human factors research, a weather event database supported by pattern recognition, data mining, visualization, and the running of high resolution storm scale models to support warning decision making processes.