CoE Russia has been created following the recommendations of the VLMG-IV meeting in 2008 to expand the VLab network to serve the Russian-speaking countries of the WMO regions RA-II and RA-VI. It comprises of two components of the WMO Regional Training Centre in the Russian Federation, namely the Roshydromet Advanced Training Institute located in Balashikha, Moscow region, and the Russian State Hydrometeorological University located in St Petersburg, supported by the Russian State Research Center for Space Hydrometeorology “Planeta”, the meteorological satellite operator located in Moscow.

The same year, the first Russian-language website of distance learning in satellite hydrology and meteorology was launched, hosted by the Federal Service of Russia for Hydrometereology and Environmental Monitoring. The website aimed to inform general public and specialists on the last achievements in the field of satellite meteorology, providing training materials such as recorded lectures, textbooks and real time data to encourage the use of satellite data in weather forecast. The website is located at http://meteovlab.meteorf.ru/.

The primary goals of the Russian virtual laboratory in satellite meteorology were to improve the quality of education and training in the subject area, to update professional skills of the weather service specialists, post-graduates and students from CIS universities, and to bridge the gap in the state-of-the-art knowledge in satellite meteorology communicated in Russian.

Participants of the Joint EUMETSAT-Planeta-ATI seminar at ATI premises, June 2019.

Over the years more than 100 hours of instruction were developed by the specialists from ATI, RSHU and Roshydromet R&D institutions. Some materials were also translated to Russian from English. Starting from 2015, joint seminars were organized for Russian and CIS meteorologists with the support from SRC Planeta and EUMETSAT. These seminars gained huge success in CIS countries.

Participants of the VLMG-VII meeting hosted at RSHU (St.Petersburg), July 2014.

CoE Contact Information

Oleg Lomakin

Director General of the RTC Russia, ATI Rector, Head of the Russian CoE

Eduard Podgaiskii

Point of Contact for the VLab CoE; Senior Lecturer (RSHU)