After attending the first Simulator workshop in Langen, Germany in 2014 (organised by EUMETSAT and supported by Eumetcal), ENAV, the Italian Air Navigation Services provider, developed a Meteorological Station (MS) simulator in order to train Meteorological Technicians (MTs).
ENAV’s MS simulator reproduces all the operational interfaces and tools available at its observation stations, including ENAV’s new AWOS, recently developed and implemented. The last release of the MS simulator works perfectly on the Moodle platform, too.
Different versions of MS simulators have been developed with an increasing degree of difficulty, in order to provide a specific level of knowledge and skills being tested. A few of them are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Example of the 3 weather simulators developed at ENAV. 1, 2 and 3 indicate an increasing level of difficulty, from basic to advanced.
After 2 years of testing, the first MT course based on simulations took place in March 2016 (Fig. 2). Compared to the previous courses, students showed greater involvement and faster learning, especially in operational procedures.
Fig.2. Students during a simulation section.
ENAV is now releasing simulations for continuous training of its operational MT personnel. The use of the Moodle platform will help spreading the course simultaneously all over the country. By the end of the year, the MS simulator will be implemented for all the MTs’ competency assessment.