Badger Summer Scholars

Satellite Science and Programming for Meteorology (called Satellite Science for short) will be offered from June 19 – July 1, 2022 as a residential camp on UW – Madison campus for any students grades 9-12. The class is part of UW’s Badger Summer Scholars Program. Apply here!

Course Description

View Earth’s weather and climate from outer space at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), where you can get hands-on experience with scientists at an institution that has been observing Earth for over fifty years.

This course introduces students to a variety of tech applications used for viewing the Earth-atmosphere system. Students learn how to forecast severe weather events, analyze Earth data from different wavelengths, and experience outer space through a weather satellite simulation. Students also get experience with computer programming, including data analysis using the programming language MATLAB. This course features guest lectures from SSEC engineers and scientists covering topics such as weather instrument engineering. Through a diverse and interactive curriculum, participants in this course try out a variety of skills and technologies related to weather and climate science, but really these skills are useful in any STEM field.

Week one of this course highlights satellite remote sensing. Week two focuses on computer programming. The course concludes with students creating their own scientific poster that they can present.