Construction of a Educational Weather Information Network by Telecommunication

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In Japan, students who are 9 going on 10 years old learn daily temperature change with the weather and a rule of the weather changes. Also, those aged of 13 to 14 learn a mechanism of the weather change and the seasonal variation of the weather in Japan. A weather information network was constructed to provide weather information to schools for using in precollege meteorological education in the classroom. Satellite images, meteorological element data and weather charts have been collected. Real-time and typical data are provided through a telephone line with a data modem. After gaining access to the network, the user can regard the file server as a virtual drive on his or her computer without knowledge of telecommunication protocols, and download files of the data from the server. It took 80 to 120 seconds to download an infrared satellite image having 400 Kbytes. A large quantity of data can also be provided by a CD-ROM according to user's request. A software package, which allows remote users to use the satellite images as teaching materials, was developed. The basic aim in designing the software was that precollege students can study the weather by themselves. The main functions for using in classrooms are as follows : 1) displaying an infrared image and a visible image around Japan ; 2) displaying a infrared image of the earth ; 3) animation of images ; 4) magnifications of the image ; 5) coloring area of a specified range of temperature or reflectivity ; 6) superimposing a visible image on an infrared image ; 7) displaying of a stereoscopic image ; 8) outputting to a printer or a graphic software. A short course for precollege teachers to promote the use of our network for classroom teaching was held. 24 teachers attended the course.