SSEC, in support of the World Meteorological Organization, pursues the goal of expanding environmental awareness and understanding through educational seminars and training events introducing the latest satellite remote sensing measurements. In the past decade SSEC scientists annually have given at least one week-long seminar that offers in depth explanation of methods and techniques used to extract information from environmental satellite data. The seminars consist of lectures, laboratory sessions, group lab projects, homework and tests; they are intended to provide a broad fundamental perspective to young researchers as well as to graduate students around the world. Lectures include materials on (1) Radiation and the Radiative Transfer, (2) Spectral signatures from Earth's surface and atmosphere, (3) Imaging with multi-spectral imagers, (4) Sounding with infrared high spectral resolution data, (5) Using complementary microwave and infrared measurements, (6) Instrument considerations and achieving calibration / validation, and (7) Evolving to the future Global Observing System. Laboratory exercises emphasize investigation of high spatial resolution (MODIS) and high spectral resolution (AIRS, IASI) data; more recently high temporal resolution data (SEVIRI, GOES) have also been added. “Applications with Meteorological Satellites” is used as a resource text; it is available for free at ftp://ftp.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/menzel/. HYDRA (Hyperspectral viewer for Development of Research Applications) is used to interrogate and view multispectral data in the labs; it is available for free at http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/hydra/. Data are accessed from the NASA web site http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/ or from direct broadcast facilities when available.

Recently, SSEC scientists, in collaboration with EUMETSAT and NOAA, have attempted to bring greater understanding of remote sensing technology to third world countries in particular with the goal of helping to foster a new generation of environmental scientists. The mantra for the seminars is to achieve improved use of satellite data through better understanding of remote sensing principles combined with local knowledge of the terrain, the land use, and the weather trends.