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DLOC Course Outline

This outline provides a complete list of all the DLOC Topics, what materials they cover, and how long approximately it should take to complete them. In addition, there information about each Topics content, delivery method, and documentation. DLOC students need to use the NWS Learning Center to ensure that all completion requirements are met for each section of the course.

DLOC Outline

DLOC Orientation
  • Brief Description: This lesson provides an overview of the course to students and local facilitators. Each section of the course will be touched
  • Delivery Method: Teletraining
  • Approximate Completion Time: 1 hour
  • Presentation Download: GotoWebinar Session (No Presentation Download!)
  • Documentation Download: Orientation Student Guide (202 KB PDF)
Topic 1: Radar & Warning Applications Using AWIPS
  • Brief Description: Effective warning forecasters need to be proficient at using AWIPS. This lesson covers a series of topics and tasks directly related to using AWIPS to investigate radar data and during warning operations.
  • Delivery Method: Student guide (hardcopy) and on-line task descriptions
  • Approximate Completion Time: 15-20 hours
Topic 2: Introduction to the WSR-88D System
  • Brief Description: This lesson is an overview of all of the main components and subcomponents of the WSR-88D system. In order to effectively operate the system and produce the best quality data, it is important to understand the basics of these six components and how data flows through the entire system.
  • Delivery Method:On-line Training Module
  • Approximate Completion Time:1-2 hours
Topic 3: Principles of Meteorological Doppler Radar
  • Brief Description: This topic consists of six lessons that cover a variety of scientific principles about how Doppler radar in general, and the WSR-88D in particular, work. These lessons will cover many technical details of how the WSR-88D collects data, quality controls it, and processes it into base and derived products. Details on the products themselves in this section will be limited to products related to precipitation estimation in Lesson 6.
  • Delivery Method: On-line web module (Lesson 1), Asynchronous instructor-led web modules (Lessons 2-4, & 6), and Teletraining (Lesson 5)
  • Approximate Completion Time: 8-10 hours
Topic 4: Velocity Interpretation
  • Brief Description: This topic consist of one lesson on the proper interpretation of radial Doppler velocity patterns. This lesson will present how to interpret Doppler velocity patterns under uniform, non-uniform, ambiguous, and meteorologically complex conditions.
  • Delivery Method: Asynchronous instructor-led web module
  • Approximate Completion Time: 90 minutes
Topic 5: Base and Derived Products
  • Brief Description: This topic will present the suite of Base and Derived Products and their applications. Also presented will be relevant information on the algorithms that generate the various products and displays.
  • Delivery Method: Asynchronous instructor-led web modules (Lessons1-24) and Teletraining (Lesson 25)
  • Approximate Completion Time: 10 hours

NOTE: There are five exams that cover different parts of Topic 5. The breakdown of what lessons each exam covers is as follows:

  • Exam #1: Lessons 1-4
  • Exam #2: Lessons 5-14
  • Exam #3: Lessons 15-22
  • Exam #4: Lessons 23-24
  • Exam #5: Lesson 25
Topic 6: System Operations and Control
  • Brief Description: This topic provides an understanding of overall WSR-88D operations and basic familiarization with the Master System Control Function (MSCF) and the Radar Product Generator (RPG) Human Control Interface (HCI).
  • Delivery Method:On-line web module
  • Approximate Completion Time: 6 hours
Topic 7: Convective Storm and Evolution
  • Brief Description: This topic describes some important thermodynamic and kinematic parameters developed to evaluate convective severe weather potential. The instruction also treats the fundamental relationships between sheer and instability with respect to convective storm type, focusing both on recent observations and numerical simulations of storms. Next are typical environments of weakly sheared and strongly sheared convection, recognition and interpretation of severe storm signatures, and how severe weather signatures are manifested by particular severe weather hazards.
  • Delivery Method: On-line web module (prerequisites), Asynchronous instructor-led web modules (Lessons 1-17), and Teletraining (Lesson 18)
  • Approximate Completion Time: 10 hours
  • Pre-requisites:
    1. Capabilities of Thermodynamics and Kinematic Severe Weather Parameters
    2. Skew-T Mastery
Topic 8: DLOC Workshop
  • Brief Description: This topic is a four-and-a-half day workshop that completes DLOC. This workshop, which is held at the National Weather Center (in Norman, OK), gives DLOC students the opportunity to apply the content they learned about in the previous seven topics during a variety of exercises and simulations, as well as participate in several presentations about current and future operational applications, tools, and research.
  • Delivery Method: In-Residence Workshop
  • Approximate Completion Time: 36 hours (4.5 days)

 

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Page last modified: July 17, 2008 15:25

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