UCAR > Communications > Millenium Search

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In a remarkable display of wisdom and foresight, the leaders of the university atmospheric sciences community and the National Science Foundation (NSF) established the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the late 1950s under the management of a consortium of universities, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). This visionary model has been validated over the years, as the partnership between the consortium and its NSF-sponsored national center has continuously strengthened and advanced the atmospheric sciences. Recent reviews conducted by NSF affirm the high quality and effectiveness of NCAR's and UCAR's leadership and service to the community and validate the role and value of NCAR as a national center. This leadership and service are manifested in a broad array of activities: appointment of high-quality staff; conduct of research of the highest quality; strategic planning; initiation of new programs; development of new observational and computational facilities, community models, and datasets; planning and execution of field programs; support of education at all levels; and information and technology transfer.

"The National Center for Atmospheric Research serves the nation with distinction. By means of well-chosen programs of research and infrastructure provision, NCAR simultaneously leads and supports the national atmospheric science community in an increasingly broad and interdisciplinary program."

--from the review panel report to the National Science Foundation on UCAR/NCAR management, May 1, 1997

UCAR and NCAR function through a unique symbiosis with the universities and the NSF. The intrinsic university role affects all aspects of the governance, management, and operation of the national center and the corporation. NCAR's programs are shaped through a consensus-based grassroots process that is unparalleled in other scientific centers or laboratories. Faculty from the 62 UCAR member universities not only govern UCAR through the Board of Trustees but participate in the activities of NCAR, serving on advisory panels and committees such as University Relations Committee; collaborating in research and the development of facilities and models; spending time in residence as visiting scientists; and using NCAR's community facilities, models, and datasets. Although they do not vote, the 19 Academic Affiliates also participate in review panels, advisory and policy committees, and other UCAR governance activities. NSF provides oversight, stewardship, and long-term support of the center and is responsible for conducting peer reviews to ensure the quality of the center's programs and management. This novel partnership brings enormous intellectual resources to bear on the most important atmospheric problems that further the science and benefit society.

The atmospheric sciences have realized revolutionary advances in observational and computational capability since the founding of UCAR and NCAR, and this technological progress has supported correspondingly dramatic increases in our understanding of the atmosphere and the other components of the earth system. This enhanced understanding, in turn, has helped weather forecasters to predict the behavior of the atmosphere more accurately, over a greater range of time scales, and with higher resolution than ever before, and will make possible even greater applications of the science to meet societal needs in the future.

Over this same time period, increasing population and economic development have made society ever more vulnerable to weather phenomena and climate variability. Increases in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries, in turn, affect weather and climate on all scales by modifying the composition of the atmosphere and the characteristics of the earth's surface.

These changes in technology and increases in human activities provide both important challenges and numerous opportunities to the atmospheric sciences. The collocation of NCAR's broad mix of capabilities in one center and the sharing of ideas, information, and technologies with the broad university community and with other UCAR programs, managed by the UCAR Office of Programs (UOP), assure an environment of vitality and creativity in meeting the complex challenges and opportunities of the coming decades.

UCAR Mission

to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the university community, nationally and internationally; to understand the behavior of the atmospheric and related systems and the global environment; and to foster the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on earth.

In the past two years, UCAR and NCAR have been reviewed on all levels, including assessments of divisions, programs, NCAR as a whole, and UCAR and NCAR management. NCAR received extremely high praise from reviewers in both rounds of review. Illustrative comments from the most recent, fourth-year review are sprinkled throughout this proposal.

This proposal summarizes how NCAR, with UCAR's leadership and its university and UOP collaborators, will continue strengthening the atmospheric sciences through developing new understanding, improving NCAR's observational and computational infrastructure, applying new knowledge to societal needs, helping to educate people of all ages, transferring technology and information, increasing the participation of underrepresented groups, and communicating the importance and relevance of science to policymakers and the public.

As affirmed by recent NSF reviews, NCAR and UCAR contribute strongly to all three of the overarching goals in NSF's strategic plan, helping the U.S. to uphold a position of world leadership in science and technology, promoting the transfer of new knowledge to society, and contributing to excellence in science and technology education.

NCAR Priorities
1998-2003

Fundamental Research
Understanding and Predicting the Earth System
Advanced Scientific Facilities
Human Dimensions and Societal Impacts
Education and Training
Applications and Technology Transfer

NCAR's priorities over the next five years fall into six main areas:

(1) Fundamental Research. In keeping with the mission of NSF, the foundation of NCAR's program is fundamental research, particularly research of sufficient complexity to command the resources of a national center. This program includes solar physics, fluid dynamics and turbulence, cloud and precipitation physics, atmospheric chemistry, mesoscale meteorology, and climate. A broad and flexible program of basic research will allow NCAR to make fundamental progress in such diverse areas as solar magnetism, geophysical turbulence, and precipitation physics. In turn, fundamental understandings will propel developments in facilities and education and future applications of science to address societal needs.

(2) Understanding and Predicting the Earth System. Building on the broad base of fundamental research, NCAR and its many university collaborators will carry out major cross-cutting efforts toward understanding and predicting the earth system. This includes research on prediction of weather on short temporal and small spatial scales, longer-term prediction of monthly and seasonal means, and studies of the influence of human, solar, and other forcing processes on weather and climate.

(3) Advanced Scientific Facilities. NCAR will continue to put a high priority on developing new and cutting-edge scientific facilities that can be efficiently and cost-effectively supplied by a national center. This effort will include computing systems, instruments and observing systems, community models, datasets, advanced networking and communications tools, and provision of these facilities to the community. NCAR's facilities support world-class research at the center, in the universities, and in research institutions throughout the world and thus comprise an essential part of the infrastructure of the national and international geosciences communities.

(4) Human Dimensions and Societal Impacts. NCAR will place increasing emphasis on studying the impacts of climate and weather on society; on human influences on the climate system; on society's ability to cope with weather- and climate-related impacts; and on the use and value of meteorological, climate, and other atmospheric-related information in a variety of contexts. In the next five years, NCAR, in collaboration with university partners, will carry out research institution-wide on the human dimensions of atmospheric sciences, a theme emphasizing multidisciplinary research addressing a broad range of topics connecting the subdisciplines of the earth system with their impacts on society.

(5) Education and Training. NCAR will continue and strengthen its efforts in education. The Advanced Study Program will support a strong postdoctoral fellowship program and graduate research assistantships to encourage the development of creativity, independence, and breadth in young scientists. NCAR's facilities and science programs will support graduate students and visitors and offer colloquia and summer visitor programs. NCAR scientists will serve the universities through visiting appointments and participation on university thesis committees. NCAR will continue to support K-12 and undergraduate education programs and the UCAR-wide SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science) program, whose goal is to produce a marked increase in the number of people from seriously underrepresented groups who hold graduate degrees.

(6) Applications and Technology/Information Transfer. NCAR will transfer information, technology, and research results to the public and private sectors and to university colleagues and constituents in three major ways. Through direct transfer, the center will deliver weather- and climate-related information straight to specific users of this information. Public domain access will make information freely available to the broadest audience, for example giving university colleagues access to numerical models and datasets via the Internet. Finally, licensing through UCAR will makes certain complex technologies such as observational systems available to both the public and private sectors in a way that encourages quality control and commercial development with a concomitant return on investment to the taxpayers who support the research. NCAR's technology and information transfer will support operational weather and climate forecasting, aviation weather and safety, agriculture, energy, transportation, and the insurance industry, as well as policymakers in the executive and legislative branches of the government.

In support of its efforts to achieve the highest levels of accomplishment for the center, management has adopted nine objectives: to be a center of excellence, to foster interactions among disciplines and within programs, to emphasize the most challenging problems, to carry out broad and balanced activities, to be responsive to constituents, to adapt to new opportunities in a timely manner, to promote a supportive work environment for all staff, to practice fiscal integrity and responsibility, and to provide top-quality leadership in all areas. A mission of service in the broadest sense will be the dominant theme for NCAR in pursuit of its goals in the next five years.

UCAR continues to be the time-tested and validated vehicle through which the broad university community, rather than a single organization or institution, shapes and guides the activities of the national center. UCAR's governance and management structure have evolved dynamically since its inception almost 40 years ago, and the corporation will continue to respond to new challenges and changing environments flexibly and creatively, building upon past successes and improved by input from the community through ongoing avenues of participation, advice, and peer review.

UCAR is proud to have served the university community, the National Science Foundation, other federal sponsors, and the nation during the past 37 years as manager and operator of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. We look forward to continuing this productive relationship.