International

Hiro Gosden and Kashia Jekel provided assistance in creating an installation package to install the WMO Tutorial Session on the personal computers in DVD format. The DVD's will be shipped to Don Hinsman to be passed out to the WMO sites. (H. Gosden)

GOES-12 imagery for December 2005 through February 2006 were processed for the Regional Meteorological Training Centers (RMTCs) in Costa Rica and Barbados . The archives are being used to look at cloud frequency during the rainy and dry seasons and detect local variations from year to year. The archived imagery also provides access to examples for use in satellite focused training efforts. The monthly cloud frequency composites for December 1996-2005, January and February 1997-2006 by 10.7 µm temperature threshold technique for Costa Rica are presented in Figure 1.  Click on images to enlarge.

Figure 1. Monthly cloud frequency composites for December 1996-2005, January and February 1997-2006 by 10.7 µm temperature threshold technique for Costa Rica .

A comparison of cloud frequency derived by temperature threshold of 10.7 µm imagery for December 1998-2005, January and February 1999-2006 for Barbados is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Comparison of cloud frequency derived by temperature threshold of 10.7 µm imagery for December 1998-2005, January and February 1999-2006 for Barbados .

The following web pages continue to provide on-line imagery in jpg format over Central and South America and the Caribbean .

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/rmsdsol/RMTC.html

http://www.cira.colostate.edu/RAMM/rmsdsol/COS.html (for imagery over Costa Rica and Barbados

The imagery from these sites is also available for the international weather briefings through VISITView RAMSDIS Online:

http://hadar.cira.colostate.edu/vview/vmrmtcrso.html

http://vesta.cira.colostate.edu/vview/vmrmtc1.html

The following site continues to display satellite precipitation estimates and fire products: http://www.cira.colostate.edu/ramm/sica/main.html

The WMO Virtual Laboratory Task Team conducted 3 monthly English and Spanish weather briefings through VISITview using GOES and POES satellite Imagery from CIRA ( http://hadar.cira.colostate.edu/vview/vmrmtcrso.html ) and voice via Yahoo Messenger. There were participants from the U.S.: CIRA, CIMSS, COMET, SAB at NESDIS, the International Desk at NCEP, as well as outside the U.S.: Argentina, Antigua, Barbados, Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Panamá, Peru, Paraguay, and Venezuela. The discussions were well attended with up to 25 computer connections and multiple participants at many sites. The sessions started with comments from the participating countries on the features of interest for their local weather. After this, Mike Davison at NCEP International Desk gave an analysis . The sessions generally last 90 minutes. (B. Connell and D. Coleman)

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