GULFPORT, Miss. (NNS) —Two new training modules for celestial navigation and geodesy and maps are now accessible to fleet users via the MetEd portal hosted by COMET® at https://www.meted.ucar.edu/.
These are the latest of 370 geoscience training modules currently available on the portal for more than 370,000 users worldwide.
"Principles of Celestial Navigation" provides a basic two-three hour introduction to celestial navigation. The module introduces the relationship between celestial and Earth coordinates and examines key celestial navigation parameters-geographic position, sextant altitude, observed altitude, azimuth, and computed altitude.
A U.S. Navy navigator demonstrates the main celestial sights performed over the course of a day. The concepts of fix, running fix, estimated position, dead reckoning, and assumed position are also discussed. Sean Urban, Chief, Nautical Almanac Office and U.S. Naval Observatory, provided subject matter expertise with video demonstrations by Chief Quartermaster (SW/AW) Timothy Sheedy.
"Introduction to Geodesy and Maps," a two-hour module, covers geodesy, datums, map projections, and map coordinate systems. Geodesy addresses the shape of the earth: the topographic surface, geoid, and best-fit ellipsoid. Datums address the position and orientation or the best-fit ellipsoid and the resulting coordinates. Jason "Jake" Thompson of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Professional Development Center provided subject matter expertise.
COMET® hosts computer-based training on 21 topics including Aviation, NWP, Hydrology, Oceanography/Marine Meteorology, Radar, Satellite and Tropical. It is part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Community Programs. The COMET® Program and MetEd portal, now in its 25th year, is sponsored by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) with additional funding from the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NAVMETOCCOM), Bureau of Meteorology of Australia, Bureau of Reclamation, United States Department of the Interior, European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS), NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
For more information about the new modules, please contact the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Professional Development Center at (228)871-2916.
For more news from Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnmoc/.