Presentation Abstract for 2008 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference:
Activities for Learning in Meteorology

THE COMET PROGRAM: EXTENDING SATELLITE METEOROLOGY TRAINING RESOURCES TO THE INTERNATIONAL ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE COMMUNITY

Timothy C. Spangler and Patrick N. Dills

UCAR/COMET^®, Boulder, Colorado USA

ABSTRACT

The COMET^® Program (http://www.comet.ucar.edu) receives funding from NOAA-NESDIS and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO) with additional contributions from the GOES-R Program Office and EUMETSAT to support education and training efforts in the area of satellite meteorology. This partnership enables COMET to create training materials of broad global interest on geostationary and polar-orbiting remote sensing platforms and their data, products, and operational applications.

Over the last few years, COMET’s satellite training has focused on the capabilities, applications, and relevance of the upcoming NPP/NPOESS system to operational forecasters and other user communities. By partnering with experts from the Naval Research Laboratory and NOAA-NESDIS and working closely with various user communities, COMET strives to stimulate greater utilization of current and future satellite data observations and products. In addition, COMET has broadened the scope of its online training to include materials on the EUMETSAT Polar-orbiting System (EPS) and Meteosat geostationary satellites. EPS represents an important contribution to the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) between NOAA and EUMETSAT, while Meteosat imaging capabilities provide an important proving ground for the next generation GOES-R+ imager and support COMET’s efforts to prepare users for the GOES-R+ spacecraft series. In 2007, COMET along with the support of its training partners initiated the Environmental Satellite Resource Center (ESRC). The ESRC consists of an Internet accessible and searchable database that houses learning and information resources for the international environmental satellite user community from multiple sources, including Meted (http://meted.ucar.edu). In addition to being able to locate information and multimedia of interest, users will have the opportunity to help expand the ESRC by contributing and sharing resources.

This presentation will provide a brief overview of COMET’s satellite distance learning efforts, with a more in-depth review of ongoing initiatives. The presentation will also preview the new community Environmental Satellite Resource Center (ESRC), planned for initial implementation in 2008.