The training bulletin

// Issue XIII - July 2018

Activities & events

Meteorological Simulator Build Workshop

11 to 13 December / Helsinki, Finland

EUMETSAT and Finnish Meteorological Institute are organizing a workshop on Meteorological Simulators from 11th to 13th December 2018, at the FMI Headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The course has places for maximum 20 participants and the course registration will be open 1 October 2018. There is no course fee. Participants for the workshop are expected to come self-funded. EUMETSAT offers travel support for a limited number of selected participants. For any enquiries about applications or course information, please contact EUMETSAT Training (training@eumetsat.int). Participants will be informed if they have been successful in being able to attend the course by 8th November 2018.

The course is aimed at WMO RA-VI NMHS trainers, who are building simulators for their staff or courses.

Competenecy Assessment Course

4 to 6 December / Exeter, UK

The UK Met Office and Eumetcal are organising a course on Competency Assessment, which will have a residence phase from 4th to 6th December 2018, at the Met Office in Exeter, UK. The course is aimed at NMHS trainers and training managers who are involved in the competence assessment of their team and/or within their NMHS. The course has places for 12 participants and the course registration is open until 2nd November 2018. You can register here.

Eumetcal or UK Met Office will not be sponsoring or arranging travel, accommodation or other related expenses.

Eumetcal Workshop 2018

August 28- 30 / Riga, Latvia

The 12th Eumetcal Workshop will be held in Riga, Latvia on 28–30 August 2018, jointly organised by EUMETCAL and the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVGMC).

The EUMETCAL Workshop welcomes all training practitioners and training managers in meteorology and related disciplines in Europe and beyond. All levels of experience are welcome.

The themes of the workshop are:

Visualising the training processes and proposing new approaches and solutions.
Developing Active Learning and Facilitation skills.
News for, and from, the meteorological training community.

The workshop is linked to the WMO competencies for training providers. No participation fee is required to attend this workshop.

Additional and up-to-date information available on the workshop webpage at http://bit.ly/12EumetcalWS. The workshop starts in the morning in 28 Aug and ends by noon on 30 Aug.

Synoptic and Mesoscale Analysis of Satellite Images 2018 Course

1 October to 11 November (Online) / 19 to 23 November (Classroom)

International training courses on satellite meteorology have being offered since 2012. These courses are delivered with cooperation between EUMETCAL, EUMeTrain and the DWD.

This course will be blended - eight topics will be covered during the online phase (self-study, three live presentations, playground sessions, short tests and homework for students) and students will attend a one-week classroom phase at the training centre of the DWD in Langen.

Two categories of students were defined:
a) only online participants or
b) participants in both phases
Registration is open until 10 August 2018.

Six trainers are available for preparing the course material for self-studies, online lecturing, guiding the students during their work with tests and homework, and for evaluating the students' work. During the classroom part in Langen five trainers will train the students and will guide them through the exercises and the group works.

The course content is in accordance to the WMO-requirements "No 1083, BIP-M". All students will have to prove their skills by delivering homework, exercises, and quizzes of high-quality.

CALMet Online 2018: Submit your training project ideas and start collaborating

27 September / Online

CALMet Online Workshops are online collaboration sessions for trainers in the field of meteorology. Trainers are invited to submit their current training projects to share and discuss with colleague trainers and instructional designers in the context of one-hour online workshops. The main aim of the workshop is to generate ideas on how to actively engage the learners and propose ideas for training exercises.

If you are working on a training project for which you would like more ideas, you are now invited to submit your project ideas using this form before 3 September. The next workshop session is planned for 27 September, 2018.

EUMeTrain Event Week on Aviation

3 to 7 December 2018 / Online

From 3 to 7 December, EUMeTrain is running an event week on Aviation Meteorology. During this week we will focus on topics which are relevant for aviation meteorology, including turbulence, fog, convection and volcanic ash.

The event week is free and open to all, prior registration is needed. Self-registration is simple and you can register for one or more sessions.

Registration links will be available at eumetrain.org in the coming months.

The Operational Marine Surface Analysis using EUMETSAT's Copernicus Marine Data Stream

3 to 21 September 2018 (Online); 3 to 7 December 2018 (Classroom) / SAWS, South Africa

The next Operational Marine Surface Analysis using EUMETSAT's Copernicus Marine Data Stream will take place later this year.

Participants must successfully complete the online phase, which will be held in September, before being considered for the face-to-face classroom phase in Pretoria, South Africa in December. This time the course is directed at African forecasters who have, or may soon have, a responsibility for issuing marine forecasts. It will concentrate on using altimetry and scatterometer data. However, there is no restriction on who may participate in the online phase.

Instructors from NOAA and KNMI will assist in the delivery of the course.

You can apply now on the EUMETSAT Training site.

// Issue XIII - July 2018

Resources & Tools

Kupa-Korana Hydro Simulator

Online, EUMeTrain

This simulator case provides users with the opportunity to work closely with colleagues in order to learn how to properly prepare and disseminate timely high impact weather warnings.

In the future weather forecasters will deal more intensely with high impact weather. Therefore, It is important to raise awareness that forecast information needs to be issued on time and disseminated through proper channels. There is usually a small time window in which to react. So, there is a need for better interdisciplinary communication and team work between a hydrologist and a forecaster. With such cooperation bad weather impact prediction will be improved and more effective.

Some basic information on the hydrological model has been provided on the simulator, so it can be used with, or without, the support of a hydrologist.

You can access the simulator on EUMeTrain's website.

// Issue XIII - July 2018

Stories & Achievements

Participants master processing and application of Copernicus marine data in Riga

16 to 20 April 2018 / Riga, Latvia

A marine applications training course was held in Riga in April, in collaboration with the LVGMC. Fifteen participants from around Europe worked for five days implementing their own work flows to download and process Sentinel-3 data from the Copernicus Marine Data Stream.

The applications they worked on were exceptionally broad, including the validation of operational sea state models, the use of temperature for recreational bathing and the impacts of renewable energy installations on coastal water quality. Participants made extensive use of the Sentinel Applications Platform (SNAP) and python. Virtual machines were tested as platforms to assist participants wishing to work with large volumes of data.

Excellent presentations were given by all candidates, a number of which are currently being developed for EUMETSAT Image Library case studies.

EUMeTrain Satellite Skills Course 2018

2 May – 17 June / Online, Moodle

The EUMeTrain Satellite Skills Course 2018 is a basic satellite course primarily aimed for forecasters, but other meteorologists can participate.

The online course this year covered three main topics: 'Surface Features', 'Cloud Types and their Characteristics' and 'Atmospheric Phenomena'.

At the end of each chapter there was a quiz to test and strengthen the students' gained knowledge. The course was mainly asynchronous, but in each chapter there was a 'playground' session where the presenter had the opportunity to interact with the attendees by showing and analysing some interesting cases.

At the end of the course the participants had to fill out the evaluation form. Certificates of participation and success were given to them according to their success during the course, in quizzes, homework and participation in the forums.

The Use of Gridded Satellite Data for Climate Services

1 - 27 April 2018 (Online); 14 - 18 May 2018 (Classroom) / Riga, Latvia

Working with satellite-based climate data records, in combination with station-based climate data, was the subject of the 2018 EUMETSAT training course on the "Use of gridded satellite data for climate services".

Forty-four scientists participated in the online phase and 17 attended the classroom phase, kindly hosted by the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVGMC).

For the first time the combined use of R-Instat and the CM SAF R Toolbox was tested in Europe, and proved to be as successful as it was when used in Africa! Also for the first time, this course included an introduction to the Climate Data Store (CDS) of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The major part of the classroom phase was reserved for work on individual mini projects. Participants worked on real life questions using CM SAF data, with support from the course instructors. At the end of the week all participants presented their results.

Operational Marine Surface Analysis using EUMETSAT's Copernicus Marine Data Stream

2 April to 20 April 2018, Online / 4-8 Jun 2018, Lisbon, Portugal

The Operational Marine Surface Analysis using EUMETSAT's Copernicus Marine Data Stream Course (Classroom Phase) was held at the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) in Lisbon, Portugal.

The classroom phase, open to those who successfully completed the Online Phase earlier this year, allowed a more in-depth look at altimetry and scatterometer data. As well as lectures, we concentrated on practical sessions and exploring live weather.

The course finished with participants giving a short presentation of an event that had caught their interest. This year’s presentations were extremely fascinating and showed how much the students had gained from the course.

The course was supported by instructors from NOAA and KNMI allowing the participants to interact with them, ask questions and get responses direct from the experts.