Training and Outreach

SAIC provides on-site, in-country training to weather forecasters and technical support staff. We ensure the sustainability of forecast operations while providing access to the most advanced techniques.

For end users of weather, water and climate information, we have various outreach programs designed to help customers fully exploit advances in environmental prediction and environmental assessment. These programs address both needs of the social and economic sectors.

Air Force Weather Training
Training operational forecasters and technicians in the OWSs of the US Air Force

SAIC provides training support to OWSs located in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Germany, and Japan. At the OWS at Sembach Air Base, Germany, we maintain and train Air Force personnel on the use of the HORACE weather system developed by the UK Met Office. We assign meteorologists to the OWSs to provide weather instruction to entry-level Air Force weather technicians.

These instructors are responsible for the full scope of training, including developing all training materials and curricula and providing on-the-job and classroom instruction. They also provide continuation training to help experienced Air Force personnel maintain proficiency and keep pace with new techniques and data sources. At the 28th OWS, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, SAIC trains all forecasters providing weather guidance products and forecasts for the Middle East.

International Business Partnerships for Weather, Climate and Water Applications Outreach and Training
Developing business partnerships to enhance observing system information utilization

The Business Partnerships for Observing Systems (BPOS) is a joint effort between SAIC and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. The mission of this office is twofold:

• Raise the awareness of the International Business Community on the value of weather, climate and ocean information available from the Global Observing Systems and enable them to use this information optimally in the safe and cost-effective management and planning processes of their industry.
  
  SAIC raises awareness through seminars and presentations at business councils, chambers of commerce, trade meetings and businesses. To aid them in building their capability we develop training manuals, guidebooks, on-site training sessions and course curriculum for business schools.
  
  
• Define the international business community requirements for the information and convey these requirements to the "designers" of the information systems.
  
  SAIC achieves this goal through regional demonstration projects or "industry trials" of information in a given operation to define the applicability and value to that operation. The objective of this activity is to transform an environmental forecast into a business forecast and subsequent action plan.
  
  We create decision support systems and services in the form of effective management tools to help assimilate the forecast information into the business processes. To ensure that the observing system information is optimized for societal, economic and environmental sustainability, we actively engage the business community as well as the investment community.

Industry Trials as a Business Training Tool for Economic Valuation and Decision Support Optimization
Demonstrating the value of weather, water and climate information in end-user applications

SAIC develops and conducts international industry trials of weather, water and climate forecast information in major economic sectors. For example, we recently completed benchmarking and information performance trials in the utilities industry in the northeast United States for the NOAA.

These trials demonstrated that significant cost savings could be accrued to the electrical transmission industry by improving NWS temperature forecasts and modernizing in situ observing systems, significantly improving electrical load forecasting accuracy.