A Method for Eliciting, Preserving, and Sharing the Knowledge of Forecasters

Abstract

As in many domains of modern work, a concern in weather forecasting is the loss of expertise, due either to reassignment or retirement. This note reports upon a project that demonstrates a procedure that can be used to capture forecasters' knowledge of weather concepts. The System To Organize Representations in Meteorology-Local Knowledge (STORM-LK) focuses on weather phenomena in the Gulf Coast region. Forecasters and aerographers at Whiting Field, Naval Air Station, in Pensacola, Florida, participated in a knowledge elicitation procedure that yielded diagrammatic models of their knowledge in the form of ?concept maps.? The demonstration suggests the following: 1) the feasibility of using the approach to elicit knowledge so that it might be preserved and shared and 2) the use of concept maps to integrate and navigate through the various instructional and data resources that are used in forecasting. It is envisioned that a knowledge model patterned after STORM-LK could be created for other regions, and for many other topics. Throughout the weather forecasting community, the approach presented here could support the processes of knowledge capture and preservation at the organizational level, with the ultimate goal of fostering active learning and the achievement of local expertise.