Motta, Bikos, Zajac, Weaver, Zehr

Twenty-five teletraining sessions were administered this quarter, and three new teletraining sessions introduced.  Three RAMM team personnel have  also become VISIT instructors.  These include; R. Zehr, for the Tropical Satellite Imagery and Products session; B. Zajac, for the session on CONUS CG Lightning activity; and J. Weaver for the new session on using RSO imagery.  In addition to administering the many teletraining sessions, D. Bikos worked with B. Motta and  J. Weaver in preparing material for, and editing, the first RSO teletraining session.  Bikos also worked on the VISITview session and the web-page version of this material.

The first VISIT teletraining session on lightning, entitled "CONUS CG Lightning Activity," was delivered to over 50 NWS WFOs during the 4th quarter.  The session discusses the operations and performance of the National Lightning Detection Network and the spatial, annual, and diurnal variations in CG lightning activity over the CONUS and the County Warning Areas of the participating WFOs.

D. Bikos collected evaluations for the teletraining sessions and prepared certificates of completion.  To date there have been over 600 certificates sent out to NWS employees for VISIT teletraining sessions.

A training module was developed by R. Zehr and B. Motta.  It was presented July 21 by R. Zehr.  The topic is satellite applications for tropical cyclone satellite analysis, with emphasis on new products and analysis procedures.  It includes discussion and illustrations on the use of GOES, SSMI, AMSU, scatterometer, and TRMM data. The SAB and two NWS offices (Houston, TX and Key West, FL) participated.   T. Mostek of the NWS/OM also participated.  Additional sessions are scheduled for September, 1999.

D. Bikos, B. Motta, and B. Zajac attended the IST/PDS working group at NWS/WRH in Salt Lake City, UT, September 14.