25 September to 6 October 2017 / Bracciano, Italy
Once again the Summer School for satellite meteorology has been held in Bracciano, Italy. This time at a different time of the year, from the end of September to the beginning of October. The teachers, Jochen Kerkmann (EUMETSAT), Ralf Bennartz (University of Wisconsin) and Davide Melfi (Italian Meteorological Service), were accompanied by new presenters, younger colleagues from the area of satellite meteorology: Michaela Valachova (CHMI) and Djordje Gencic (RHMSS).
The participants came from all over Europe and from different fields of work, mostly general forecasters, but also military forecasters, researchers, etc.
The lecture topics consisted of satellite single channels, channel differences, and RGB composites. Lectures in the morning and early afternoon were followed by a laboratory practice, in which specific events (fires, dust storms, convective clouds, etc.) were analysed using imagery from different satellites (geostationary, polar) and their combinations in a software called McIDAS-V. Also, students in this summer school used imagery from the new Himawari-8 satellite and tried to create RGBs similar to the ones that will be used with the new MTG satellite.
‘As it was my first time attending the course as a student, I really enjoyed the practical work after lectures, which included fog, convection etc., which will prove useful during my daily work as a future forecaster at the met office in Zagreb.’, said Marko Blašković, a meteorologist in Zagreb.