Virtual Laboratory – An
opportunity for collaborative
education and training
Jeff Wilson
Co-Chair of the CGMS/WMO Virtual
Laboratory Focus Group
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Who am I
• Primarily a trainer in a national weather
service
• Background in image interpretation, and use
of manipulation and display systems
(primarily McIDAS)
• Not a remote sensing specialist
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Who are we?
Virtual Laboratory team
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Long term goal of Virtual Lab
• Contribute towards the more effective
utilization of meteorological satellite data
and products by researchers and operational
forecasters.
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What do we know about you?
You :
• Are a community of operational and research
users of sounding data
• Encourage the sharing of expertise and software
within the community
• Wish to establish links with the WMO specialized
“centres of excellence”
• Have Education and Training as one of your goals
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Now tell me about it!
The Virtual Laboratory
• Organizational structure
• Conceptually
• In reality
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The VL is a global network of specialised training centres created to
meet user needs for increased skills and knowledge in using satellite data
San Jose
Costa Rica
Narobi
Kenya
NESDIS
CIRA/CIMSS
EUMETSAT
Niamey
Niger
Bridgetown
Barbados
JMA
NSMC
Melbourne
Australia
Nanjing
China
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VL schematic
Virtual Laboratory for
Basic Skills
Virtual Laboratory for
Specialist Skills
Virtual Resource Library
Science Community IWWG,
ITWG, IPWG ….
Documented competencies for the
use of satellite data (WMO Pub.
No. 258), biennial questionnaire
Data from Satellite
Operators
Visualization and data
manipulation tools (RAMSDIS,
SATAID, VISITView, RAMSDIS
On-line,………)
Available learning resources and guides (COMET, SATAID,
EuroMET, printed material, CIRA, BMTC and other CAL)
and appropriate educational approaches
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Virtual Resource Library
The Virtual Resource Library is the core of
the VL and reflects the 3 cornerstones of the
ET Strategy to Improve Satellite System
Utilisation by providing access to
– Training and educational material
– Software and expertise on how to utilise data
– Case study and near real time data
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Training and Education
Resources
• Courses and course material suitable for novice to
advanced users
• Assessment linked to WMO competencies
• Learning Guides for online, standalone and
hardcopy material
• Links to online forums and discussion groups and
keynote /landmark “papers”
• Links to education and training material,
particularly those based around distance and
online learning
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Software and expertise for
utilizing data
• The Virtual Resource Library contains a
suite of standard software packages and
applications for use on those packages.
• Desire strong links to specialist science
groups such as the TOVS, WINDS and
PRECIPITATION working groups
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Data
• The Virtual Resource Library provides access to
case study data in a variety of standard formats.
The data will be linked to the training sessions or
it can be used on its own (eg for application
development and testing)
• Near real time data will also be accessible in
several standard formats via the satellite operator’s
online sites
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Bureau of Meteorology
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CIRA entry
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EUMETSAT
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How are we using it?
• As a resource site when developing course
material for use within the Specialized Centres
• As a portal for students / forecasters searching for
satellite education and training material
• In May we will be trialing live link up of several
of the specialized centres during a training event
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VL Future Developments
• Taxonomy
• Review of meta data held in the VRL
• Increase the amount of material held in
VRL
• Mirroring of the various websites
• Monitoring of site usage
• “Branding” of the VL sites
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Where do we go from here?
• Collaboration with ITWG members to
develop the taxonomy
• Encourage you to register your material in
our database (bridge@eumetsat.de or
J.Wilson@bom.gov.au )
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