NOAA Weather Partners Virtual Tour

Virtual tour
Daphne Thompson (NSSL/CIMMS) hosts the NOAA Weather Partners Virtual Tour

A new virtual tour of the NOAA Weather Partners located in the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma Research Campus in Norman, Okla. allows visitors from all over the world to experience the unique building.  Tour at:  http://www.norman.noaa.gov/visitor/nwc-virtual-tour/

The tour begins in the elevator where visitors are invited to click on one of the seven floors of the National Weather Center.  As the doors open, visitors to the first floor learn about NOAA’s Science on a Sphere, and the “vehicle bay” where research equipment is stored.

The NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, operations areas for the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center and NWS Norman Forecast Office, and the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed are all featured on the second floor.

The third floor houses the NOAA Radar Operations Center Applications Branch, where staff work closely together to respond to National Weather Service mission needs and help transfer new technology and applications to operations.

Visitors to the fourth floor can tour the NOAA National Weather Radar Testbed where NSSL researchers can remotely control and monitor the NOAA phased array research radar for data collection, and testing upgrades to software and engineering.  Also on this floor is the classroom for the NOAA National Weather Service Warning Decision Training Branch where meteorologists from all across the country are trained in ways to improve their warning performance skill.

The tour concludes on the seventh floor Observation Deck, which is enclosed in windows so visitors can enjoy the weather from any direction.

Daphne Thompson, NSSL/Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies Meteorologist and Educational Outreach Coordinator, hosts the tour. James Murnan, NOAA/INDUS Audio/Visual and Production Specialist, produced the videos. Flash programming was done by Clark Payne, Research Associate for CIMMS/Warning Decision Training Branch.

Feedback on the tour from NSSL’s Facebook fans has been positive.

http://www.norman.noaa.gov/visitor/nwc-virtual-tour/

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