Bringing Training to Weather Service Forecasters Using a New Distance-Learning Tool

What is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service doing in these times of rapidly changing technology and falling budgets to maintain high training standards? One solution used by NOAA's Virtual Institute for Satellite Integration Training (VISIT) is to bring meteorological instructors remotely into forecast offices using teletraining-an approach that combines the use of the Internet and audio conferencing. Since VISIT began providing teletraining in April 1999, over 10,000 training certificates have been issued in a variety of meteorological topics. The project has been an unqualified success, and NOAA plans to continue to build on this distance-learning concept in the future. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]