The educational theme of the Wisconsin Project Rockets for Schools is Environment and Space . This theme reflects the use of space as a means for investigating and understanding our planetary environment. Various disciplines to include science, mathematics, technology and engineering are involved with projects that either directly or indirectly have aerospace applications. The earth and planetary sciences use space age techniques. Our atmosphere extends from the earth's surface where humans live outward to an altitude of several hundred kilometers where the gas thins to where it can longer be distinguished from space.
Meteorologists make measurements of the properties of the atmosphere at various locales.
Specifically, they monitor weather conditions at various levels in the atmosphere. For centuries the only means for studying the atmosphere was from surface based stations. Unfortunately from such a vantage, meteorologists had a somewhat limited perspective when they looked up from the surface. During the last century, several methods for obtaining measurements at points above the surface have been perfected, providing a somewhat expanded view. Only since 1960 with the deployment of the first successful meteorology satellites, have meteorologists been able to look down at the atmosphere from space, affording a much larger perspective of atmosphere processes.