Satellite education and training resources for the forecast community: advances in meteorological satellite data and applications

The Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET®) program receives funding from NESDIS and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO) to specifically support education and training efforts in the area of satellite meteorology. Distance-learning technologies applied by COMET include CD-ROM based modules, Web-based training modules, teletraining developed in conjunction with the NOAA/NWS VISIT (Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training) program, and courses that employ a “blended” distance-learning approach. Access to these resources is freely available via COMET's MetEd Web site (meted.ucar.edu).

For COMET's partnership with NESDIS, the focus is on the integration of geostationary and polar-orbiting remote sensing data into operational applications and forecast processes by including examples and training in all COMET learning materials. COMET also provides updates and revisions to previously released satellite meteorology modules when sensor modifications or new capabilities come online.

For the NPOESS IPO, COMET's focus is on highlighting and demonstrating the future capabilities, applications and relevance of the NPP/NPOESS system to operational forecasters and other user communities. COMET works closely with these user communities to stimulate greater utilization of both the training materials and current polar-orbiting satellite data observations and products. For the NPOESS effort an additional Web-based resource has been developed, the NPOESS Userport training portal. The Userport Web site (meted.ucar.edu/npoess) provides links to polar-orbiting satellite multimedia learning resources and real-time data for forecasters, scientists, students, and anyone interested in learning more about the spacecraft, data processing, products, and applications.

Another integral part of COMET's satellite training effort is the infusion of satellite data into the production process of all development teams. Each team looks for opportunities to highlight the application of operationally available satellite observations across diverse topics and communities of interest such as mesoscale meteorology, hydrology, northern latitude meteorology, marine meteorology, boundary layer meteorology, climate, fire weather, aviation weather, numerical weather prediction, and space weather.

This presentation will review COMET's ongoing satellite training efforts with an emphasis on satellite system advancements, applications, and science relevant to a variety of weather forecasting topics. Recent training modules, Webcasts and teletraining will be highlighted, and attendees will be able to see the Userport Web site.

Supplementary URLs: http://meted.ucar.edu/topics_satellite.php http://meted.ucar.edu/npoess