Satelite Training in Latin America

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Satelite Training in Latin America

• Vilma Castro,
• Professor at the School of Physics,
• University of Costa Rica
• WMO Regional Meteorological Training Center

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WMO Regional Meteorological Training Center at
the University of Costa Rica
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1995 WMO Regional Training Seminar on Satellite
Meteorology

• Coordinated by Dr. Donald Hinsman, from WMO
• With lecturers from the RMTC, NOAA, EUMETSAT
• Among them Drs Jim Purdom and Roger Weldon

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The rule in most of the participants
countrieslow resolution imagery, one or two
pictures a day in ugly thermal paper. Few
countries had displays in a monitor like the one
below .
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During the seminar in Costa Rica, Drs Purdom and
Hinsman proposed a pilot project to convert the
RMTCs in Costa Rica and Barbados in specialized
satellite training centers, with the cooperation
of WMO andNOAA/NESDIS,through the Cooperative
Institute for Atmospheric Research (CIRA), at
Colorado State Univ. Fort Collins
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Dr. Martin Yerg, at the International Activities
Division (NOAA) helped finding resources to
acquire computer equipment for the RMTC-CR
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Reconstruction effort for Hurricane Mitch
provided funds for

• 2 RAMSDIS systems for every country in Central
  America
• 1 server
• training
• calibration of rainfall algorithms
• Help Desk at the RMTC

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1999 WMO Regional Training Seminar on Satellite
Meteorology

• Coordinated by Dr. Donald Hinsman, from WMO, with
  lecturers from the RMTC and CIRA
• 50 participants
• 21 sponsored by WMO
• 11 by NOAA/Mitch project
• 6 National Met. Service of Costa Rica
• 12 from the RMTC

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2000 Regional Training Seminar on Satellite
Meteorology
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The RMTC in Costa Rica has evolved as a
specialized training center in satellite
meteorology

• PCs available for training
• Ingest of real time imagery with RAMSDIS systems
• Computed aided learning, multimedia modules from
  COMET have been translated into Spanish
• Satellite Meteorology the new GOES imager
• Satellite Meteorology Case Studies
• The Forecast Process
• Numerical Weather Prediction

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The RMTC in Costa Rica has evolved as a
specialized training center in satellite
meteorology

• It participates and pools resources from the
  Virtual Laboratory for Education and Training in
  Satellite Meteorology
• BoM via the WMO site
• http//www.wmo.ch/indexflash.html
• CIRA site http//www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/
  wmovl/main.html
• EUMETSAT site http//oislab.eumetsat.de/VLab/
  

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Challenges for the near future

• Maintain the Help Desk beyond support from
  project Mitch
• Expand the job done in Central America to other
  countries
• Train students in the digital manipulation of
  imagery and products
• Joint project between CIRA, UCR and ICE
• Validation of the blended GOES/Microwave
  precipitation estimates and TRMM

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Challenges for the near future

• Keep up the pace of the Virtual Laboratory for
  Education and Training in Satellite Meteorology
• Leaded by WMOs Expert Team on Improving
  Satellite Systems Utilization and Products

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Challenges for the near future

• Automatic access to real time meteorological data
  is still required.
• Will it be LDM-UNIDATA?
• Or a NOAAPORT?
• ACCES TO REAL TIME DATA IS IMPORTANT IN TRAINING

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I already have an antenna!and METEOFORUM
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Thank you

• Campus -UCR