COMET Classroom Education
Course Descriptions

The main focus of COMET classroom education has always included the integration of satellite, Doppler radar, and local-scale surface data with numerical models to improve short-term forecasting. In more recent years the scope of residence courses has been expanded to include longer term issues including climate variability. During the last few years, the following courses have been offered:

Advanced Hydrologic Science
Basin Customization
Climate Variability Workshop
COMAP Course
COMAP Symposium Courses
COMAP Planetary Boundary Layer Symposium
Faculty Mesoscale Course
Flash Flood Hydrology and QPE Workshop
MSC Winter Weather Course
MSC Mountain Weather
NPOESS Workshop

Instructors and guest presenters utilize a classroom with workstations, a library of mesoscale case studies, and an additional workstation suite that has the added capability of projecting images onto a large screen in the front of the classroom.

In addition to the regular slate of courses, workshops, and symposia, the COMET residence program supports activities that enhance the teaching of mesoscale meteorology at universities. These activities include the rewriting of key lectures for replay on the web, and data-translation software developed or used by the COMET staff. Special mesoscale meteorology courses and workshops for government, academic, and private-sector forecasters are also offered on occasion. Examples include a one-week course for university faculty and a two-week winter weather course for Canadian forecasters.

This two-week science course is designed for hydrologic forecasters at the RFCs and for senior Service Hydrologists at the WFOs. A background in basic hydrologic science as well as experience in hydrology is required . Course objectives are to advance the skills and knowledge of the forecaster through training and demonstration of current and near future advances in hydrology including data, modeling, and verification. Topics include hydrometeorological data input, hydrologic and hydraulic models including HEC RAS, the future of FFG, ensemble streamflow prediction and interpretation, water quality, drought, snowmelt, distributed modeling, and hydrologic verification. Topics will be taught at the graduate level by experts from various agencies and universities. Exercises will provide hands-on experience of the lecture material and foster interactions among the participants.

Course content includes: an overview to the Flash Flood Monitoring and Prediction (FFMP) approach and the basin delineation process; learning to customize and localize the original delineated basin set provided by NSSL; and identifying areas where the basin data set would be modified to enhance services, detailing the process necessary to perform/implement these enhancements.

Climate Variability Workshop
3 days of instruction

The three-day Climate Variability Workshop is a residence component of the Climate Professional Development Series (PDS).  The course is designed for NWS WFO and RFC Climate Focal Points and has the goal of raising their level of understanding of various climate variability topics. The course will provide more extensive background training in the following areas:

• The difference between climate and weather
• Statistical techniques used in climate studies, including analyses of local climatology
• Dynamics, physical mechanisms, and impacts of climate variability phenomena including El Niño / La Niña, Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO), tropical forcing, and teleconnections
• The science behind and limitations of Climate Prediction Center (CPC) climate prediction products
• The physical and feedback mechanisms involved in global climate change

The objective of this residence training is to equip the NWS Climate Focal Points with additional scientific knowledge needed to better establish NWS local offices as local climate services resources. This course is complementary to the Operational Climate Services course that targets developing operational skills. Prior to attending the residence portion of the Climate Variability residence course, attendees are expected to complete important prerequisites, including attending the Operational Climate Services course.

COMAP Course
3 weeks of instruction

COMAP PBL Symposium
4 day synchronous online course

The COMAP Planetary Boundary Layer Symposium is offered as a 4-day synchronous online course. Instructors broadcast their presentations and lab assignments from the COMET classroom via the Internet to participants located off-site. The symposium is being offered to SOO's as a follow-on requirement to the COMAP course. The goal of this symposium is to improve the operational understanding of BL processes and thereby improve the accuracy of weather forecasts which have high temporal and spatial resolution. The course is anchored scientifically through an improved understanding of components in the surface energy budget. Operational application of these fundamental concepts will range from predicting the depth of the BL to the vertical transport of heat, moisture and momentum and the impact of small-scale processes on larger-scale phenomena. The influence of terrain, vegetation, and urbanization on the diurnal cycle of BL processes on sensible weather will be the focus. The course will conclude with a review of the limitations imposed by models and observations. The challenge for students will be implementation of this knowledge at the local WFO. Participants will have opportunities to share information on local BL issues during the course.

Faculty Courses/workshops
One to two weeks of instruction

The initial course was offered in June 1994 to 19 university faculty members interested in updating their knowledge and skills in preparation for offering mesoscale courses at their institutions. The two-week course consisted of lectures presented by leading experts on various mesoscale topics and laboratory exercises using the Residence Program case studies. This format has been employed in subsequent one- and two-week courses and workshops focusing on various topic areas, including satellite meteorology, numerical weather prediction, hydrometeorology, thermodynamics, and effective use of multimedia in scientific instruction.  In all, over 150 university faculty have participated in these courses and workshops, which are offered every two or three years.

Flash Flood Hydrology & QPE Workshop
3 days of instruction

This 3-day course is primarily for forecasters and Service Hydrologists at WFOs. It focuses on the hydrology of flash floods. It is not a Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting (QPF) course. Participants will learn about the physical processes that control runoff, the research behind improved Flash Flood Guidance (FFG), and the latest on flash flood modeling. Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE) topics will be covered because of their importance in the Flash Flood Monitoring and Prediction (FFMP) software. Case reviews will showcase FFMP. Other related flash flood topics such as landslides, dam failures, and urbanization will be covered.

MSC Winter Weather Course
10.5 days of instruction

The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), in conjunction with the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET^®), held its inaugural Winter Weather Forecasting Course during February 2001 in Boulder, CO. The funding for this course was acquired through the Environment Canada Learning Fund. The course is being used as an impetus for the development of winter weather distance learning modules and to foster their use in MSC weather centres. Participants in the first MSC/COMET Winter Weather Course included representatives from all five MSC Regions, from Aviation and Defense Services, and from the Canadian Meteorological Centre. In addition, as part of an ongoing effort to partner with the National Weather Service (NWS) on mutually beneficial training, NWS forecasters from two NWS regions participated in the course.

The course focuses on hazardous winter season meteorology, from the synoptic scale to the mesoscale. The ultimate goal of the course is for participants to increase their understanding of winter weather phenomena and then to transfer this knowledge to local forecast centre meteorologists and offices.

MSC Mountain Weather Course
4.5 days of instruction

Sponsored by the Meteorological Society of Canada and COMET, the MWC emphasizes instruction on forecasting winter weather in complex terrain. Applying the latest research on mountain meteorology in operations is covered by a series of lectures and interactive laboratories. Specifically, the mountains of southwestern Canada and the northwestern US are emphasized as forecasters prepare for the 2010 Winter Olympics in the Whistler, British Columbia region. Extensive coverage of orographic precipitation, blocking, winter microphysics, dynamic aspects of complex terrain flows, and instrumentation comprises the course.

NPOESS Workshop
2-3 day workshop

This 2 to 3-day workshop is designed to evaluate effectiveness of current satellite-related training efforts and how they prepare the user community for future initiatives such as NPOESS, GOES-R. Workshop activities seek to identify common training needs and initiatives that address multiple constituencies. Guidance received from workshop participants is used to plan future education and training efforts.