Weather watch website

EUMETSAT has launched a new youth education website – the Learning Zone – to stimulate interest among young people and teachers in the role of satellites in monitoring the weather and climate.

The launch of the website, with the theme ‘Weather and climate: engaging youth’, coincided with this year’s World Meteorological Day on 23 March.

Aimed at 12 to 18-year-olds, the Learning Zone uses text, video animations and satellite imagery to tell the story of how spacecraft are used to monitor the weather, atmospheric composition, the oceans and climate.

The site highlights the many roles of today’s advanced weather and climate monitoring satellites, which range from collecting observations for forecasting weather and ocean circulation, to monitoring air quality over cities, tracking volcanic ash or Saharan dust storms and even monitoring rising sea levels.

There is also an easily understandable introduction to EUMETSAT’s weather satellites, which includes a new interactive animation that lets users explore the satellites and learn about their on-board instruments.

EUMETSAT Director-General, Alain Ratier, said: “We hope the Learning Zone website will be a useful resource that encourages people to learn more about the space-based monitoring of our weather and climate.”

As the site is based on a WordPress blogging platform, it will be regularly updated by a team of EUMETSAT bloggers, who will talk about the satellites, the data they collect and the day-to-day job of operating them.

The site is also intended to be a ‘homework hub’, so it provides extensive links to other educational resources, including teaching portals of National weather services and other international bodies.

World Meteorological Day, celebrated every year on 23 March, commemorates the formation of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1950 and also highlights the huge contribution that National meteorological and hydrological services make to the safety and well-being of society.

EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 29 Member States including the UK.

website link – http://l-zone.info/

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