Celebrating Comet's 25 Years of Providing Innovative Education and Training
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CELEBRATING COMET’S 25 YEARS OF PROVIDING INNOVATIVE EDUCATION AND TRAINING BY VICTORIA JOHNSON, RICHARD JEFFRIES, GREG BYRD, WENDY SCHREIBER-ABSHIRE, ELIZABETH PAGE, BRUCE MULLER, AND TIM ALBERTA COMET has continually evolved during its 25-year history in order to meet the needs for global geoscience education. lot can change in 25 years. In 1990, major Valdez, ran aground in 1989 (Fig. 1)—at the time, the political changes led the news as the fall of the largest oil spill in the nation’s coastal waters (National A Berlin Wall in 1989 resulted in the reunification Ocean Service 2015). News was also being made in of Germany and East Germany in 1990, the eventual science and technology, and one of the biggest changes collapse of the Soviet Union (U.S. Department of State involved computers. While personal computers had 2014), and major changes in foreign relations. Here, been available for several years, compared to today’s in the United States, the media continued coverage of models, they were slow, had considerably less memory, cleanup operations in Alaska to remediate environ- and their ability to display graphics and multimedia mental damage caused when the oil tanker, Exxon was limited. Cell phones were just coming on the mar- ket, but they certainly were not smart. And the web? It did not exist. The first web page was not created AFFILIATIONS: JOHNSON,* JEFFRIES, BYRD, SCHREIBER-ABSHIRE, PAGE, until late in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee at the European MULLER, AND ALBERTA—University Corporation for Atmospheric Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (World Research/Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Wide Web Consortium 2014). Education, and Training, Boulder, Colorado * Retired A less visible revolution was taking place in the CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Richard Jeffries, COMET, P.O. field of weather forecasting, partly as a result of the Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 National Weather Service (NWS)’s Modernization E-mail: [email protected] and Associated Restructuring (MAR) program. MAR The abstract for this article can be found in this issue, following the resulted in an almost complete reorganization of the table of contents. NWS forecast field offices and ushered in new tech- DOI:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00276.1 nologies, such as automated surface observations and In final form 13 April 2015 Doppler radar. These technological advances (coupled ©2015 American Meteorological Society with improvements in forecaster workstations, new satellite data, and increased computer power for AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY DECEMBER 2015 | 2183 Corporation for Atmospher- ic Research (UCAR) to es- tablish the Committee on Forecaster Training (COM- FORT). COMFORT met in 1988 (chaired by Harry Or- ville, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology) to discuss establishing a professional development program in mesoscale me- teorology and to outline the roles for UCAR and the National Center for Atmo- spheric Research (NCAR). Based on the committee’s recommendations and a memorandum of under- FIG. 1. Crews clean the shoreline in Prince William Sound, Alaska, after the standing (MOU) with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 (photo courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill NWS, in 1989 UCAR ap- Trustee Council). In 2014, COMET produced its first module for oil spill proved the creation of a new responders: “Introduction to Observing Oil from Helicopters and Planes” (www.meted.ucar.edu/training_module.php?id=1044#.VSvbiJNquO0). program within the UCAR Office of Programs (now called UCAR Community numerical weather prediction) opened up an era in Programs), and COMET was born (Spangler et al. which forecasting focused on the mesoscale rather 1994). Although funded primarily by the NWS, it was than just the synoptic scale. With an initial budget decided to house COMET within UCAR in order to of $2 billion (U.S. dollars; the final cost would be ensure strong ties with both the research and university $4.5 billion), expectations were high that forecasts in communities, which both have been strong participants general would improve and, specifically, that warnings in COMET programs and governance. for severe weather would be issued with longer lead As laid out in the MOU, COMET had four initial times and better geographic accuracy (Friday 1994; objectives: National Research Council 2012). As part of the restructuring, forecast offices were 1) support the professional development of fore- closed and new ones opened in locations that pro- casters and hydrologists by providing classroom vided for better radar coverage. Where possible, the and distance learning training that leverages the offices were located at or near universities in order to expertise of research scientists and academicians; promote collaboration between academia and opera- 2) assist in transferring research results to opera- tions (Johnson and Spayd 1996). Training NWS staff tional forecasting practice by supporting the on operating and maintaining the new radar systems development and testing of new forecast methods; fell to the NWS Operational Support Facility (now the 3) promote the collaboration of forecasters, re- Radar Operations Center). Another part of the MAR searchers, and members of the academic com- involved training and education to ensure that the munity to improve operational forecasting; and forecasters (many of whom were filling newly created 4) advance weather forecasting and nowcasting positions in their offices) were prepared to take advan- by encouraging progress in basic and applied tage of the observational data they were about to be research. inundated with. This goal resulted in the creation of a new entity—the Cooperative Program for Operational To provide the services necessary to accomplish its Meteorology, Education, and Training (COMET). objectives, COMET created three internal programs: residence, distance learning, and outreach. The resi- COMET’S BEGINNINGS. Recognizing the im- dence program would provide mesoscale meteorology portance of involving the academic and research com- training to select forecasters at the COMET classroom munities in MAR, the NWS approached the University in Boulder, Colorado. Since having all 7,000+ NWS and 2184 | DECEMBER 2015 military forecasters travel to Boulder would be prohibi- forecast offices. Originally eight weeks, the COMET tively expensive and disruptive to forecast operations, Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction course (COMAP) COMET also created a distance learning program gave SOOs a graduate-level review of mesoscale me- (Spangler 2007). Finally, COMET’s outreach program teorology to prepare them to lead mesoscale training provided monetary support for collaborative research and research in their offices (Fig. 4). One of the unique involving a forecast office (or offices) with a university. aspects of COMAP that has served as a model for many COMET’s first director was Bill Bonner, who was other COMET courses is that it was planned and led the former director of the NWS’s National Meteoro- by experts from both the academic or research field logical Center. Tim Spangler, previously a professor and from operational forecasting. As a result, COMET at Northern Illinois University, filled two positions courses have been steered by many notable scientists as the deputy director and the head of the residence such as Jim Moore (Saint Louis University, deceased), program. Dr. Spangler replaced Dr. Bonner as direc- Morris Weisman (NCAR), and Brad Colman (formerly tor in 1992 and served until 2013 when he retired, one of the first SOOs, now with Microsoft). Numerous and Dr. Rich Jeffries took the helm. In 1990, Brian instructors from both operational and research back- Heckman (a former NWS forecaster) headed the dis- grounds have in the past and currently generously tance learning program, and Charlie Chappell, who provided their time and expertise. Their service and had retired as the director of the National Oceanic dedication is a true testament to the importance the and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Office weather, water, and climate communities place on of Weather Research and Modification, managed education and training. the outreach program. The remainder of COMET’s Another unique feature of COMAP and other staff numbered just five individuals (Fig. 2). At its peak, COMET courses in the early days was the use of dis- COMET had nearly 50 employees, including some placed real time (DRT) case studies that simulated the based at the National Centers for Environmental work environment and provided practice in applying Prediction to facilitate numerical weather prediction concepts taught in the course (Spangler et al. 1994). training. Today it has around 30 full- and part-time COMET no longer produces case studies specifically staff members (Fig. 3). formatted to simulate the forecast office environment. Although originally the plan was for COMET However, the COMET staff still develops case studies to operate until MAR was complete, the need for COMET’s services has only grown for 25 years. Provid- ing relevant products and services has required that the organization adapt to changing needs, technolo- gies, audiences, and bud- gets. The rest of this paper takes a look back at some of those changes, the chal- lenges they brought, and how COMET has prepared itself to meet the future. EVOLUTION OF SER- VICES. Residence program. One of the first tasks for the COMET residence program was to design and offer on- site train-the-trainer courses for the NWS science and FIG. 2. First photo of the COMET staff. (left to right) Charlie Chappell, Tim operations officers (SOOs), Spangler, Dwight Owens, Susan Jesuroga, Bill Bonner, Brian Heckman, Hanne newly created positions Mauriello, Jim Bryant, and Kristi Gomez. Not shown is Wendy Schreiber-Abshire in the reorganized NWS who was initially on loan from the NCAR Research Applications Program. AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY DECEMBER 2015 | 2185 FIG. 3. Current COMET staff. that use data from a variety of sources (e.g., surface, At its peak, the residence program offered up to radar, satellites, and numerical weather prediction mod- 35 weeks a year of classes, workshops, and symposia.