EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
BECOMING AN AERONAUTICAL METEOROLOGICAL TECHNICIAN
Are your students curious about clouds and how they form? In class, do they seem to be fascinated by the weather phenomena? There is a possibility for them to become an aeronautical meteorological technician! Aeronautical meteorological technicians are always looking at the sky to monitor and analyse the weather conditions through specific software, reporting pilots, airport operators and cabin crew with highly accurate information on weather phenomena. This job profile requires people with high critical thinking skills to understand all the factors, and a considerable sense of commitment and personal responsibility since people’s lives depend on a good job. If you want to know more about this profile, meet Barbara Mandušić, an aeronautical meteorological technician!
SKILLS
Find out about the key skills to become an Aeronautical Meteorological Technician.
Critical Thinking
If you decide to become an aeronautical meteorological technician, “critical thinking is an essential skill because all meteorological elements are dependent on each other, and it is necessary to constantly apply and think about these dependencies”.
Commitment
As an aeronautical meteorological technician, it is fundamental to develop a strong sense of commitment towards a perfectly developed job. The consequences of not doing so could be severe. “It is highly important that the weather data we report is accurate and representative”.
Personal Responsibility
Whether it comes to controlling the weather forecast or sharing reports with the pilots, working as an aeronautical meteorological technician comes with a big sense of personal responsibility. “It is vital because we do a job on which all airspace users depend, and that is a large number of people”
Software Management
Not only you need to understand weather phenomena, but also be knowledgeable of software management to be able to monitor all the weather elements. “I continuously work with an automatic meteorology station that independently measures air temperature, air pressure, wind speed, direction, and some other elements.”
Collaboration
Although you work by yourself in the station, collaboration is needed. You will update your colleagues entering the next turn about the weather conditions, and you will work in close communication with pilots and cabin crew reporting them on weather parameters.
Flexibility
When becoming an aeronautical meteorological technician, you need to understand that when weather conditions deteriorate or a station is open 24 hours, overtime is required. Hence flexibility is an essential skill to properly carry out the job.
Curious to
know more?
Meet Barbara Mandušić, an aeronautical meteorological technician
Barbara Mandušić is a former student of the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, where she studied geophysics. After eight years working as a secondary school physics teacher, she currently works as an aeronautical meteorological technician in Croatian flight control. “My job consists of observing the current state of the atmosphere at the airport, measuring individual atmospheric parameters and distributing compiled reports”.
CC BY 4.0: all the materials and content presented on this STEM Job profile have been provided by STE(A)M IT, a project funded by the European Union’s ERASMUS+ programme project STE(A)M IT (Grant agreement 612845-EPP-1-2019-1- BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD), coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN).
