The MAP Project Operation Center (POC) will be located within the Regional Meteorological Center (CMR), a military installation located at the Military Air Base, Linate, in the southeastern outskirts of Milano. The CMR under the command of T.Col. Giuseppi Frustaci will provide limited computer and communication assistance, limited daily forecasting support in coordination with the MOC, nowcasting support during Wet MAP missions, and liaison with the Milano air traffic control. T. Col. Frustaci will be the POC Director.

The POC will occupy rooms on both the ground floor and the first floor of the CMR building. On the ground floor, a stairway rises from the lobby to the first floor. The meeting room to be used for the daily science briefings during the SOP and the room set aside for the Wet MAP operations center is shown. The floor in this room is raised so that there is accessible space underneath for laying computer cables and other wiring that will be needed in POC operations. A similar room will be set aside as an analysis lab for the PIs working in the operations center. This room will have space for workstations brought to the field by the PIs. On the first floor, there will be a room for POC offices (Wet MAP Operations Coordinator, Wet MAP Science Coordinator, etc.) and a small conference room.

A CMR shift forecaster will collaborate daily with the MOC during the preparation of the daily forecasts. The CMR will have a shift forecaster who will interact with the POC by providing daily weather forecasts in collaboration with the MOC. During IOPs, an additional Italian forecaster will aid the POC's ground-based mission scientist by providing timely nowcast input helpful to coordinating aircraft flights and deploying other facilities in an optimal mode.

The computer infrastructure at the CMR appears to be generally compatible with the needs of the POC. They use a DEC Alpha 100 server and run both UNIX and Windows NT. CMR will provide computer support staff assistance in the set-up of the POC local area network (LAN) and provide limited assistance during the field phase. The building is well designed for laying cables to connect CMR machines with POC machines and to connect the POC machines with each other. The CMR computer network is protected by a firewall. The POC network will exist outside this firewall but have direct access to the Internet and datasets residing on CMR machines.

The CMR receives satellite images, synoptic maps, and numerical model fields on an operational basis. Certain of these products can be transferred to the POC machines. Brodzik was given the format of the sounding data.