1995-9				For Release:  April 16Ð22, 1995

Contact:	Steve Davis, NCAR Exhibits Program Coordinator
		Boulder, CO  80307-3000
		Telephone:  303-497-8609 

NCAR, UCAR Celebrate 35th Anniversary with Open House

	BOULDER--Celebrate Earth Day and 35 years of 
discovery with more than 50 exhibits and demonstrations 
at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 
Boulder. This Saturday, April 22, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 
p.m., people of all ages are invited to participate in 
hands-on activities created especially for Earth Day and 
National Science and Technology Week through a 
collaboration with the Denver Museum of Natural History 
and the Collage Children's Museum.  
	Join in teacher-led demonstrations of some 
surprising scientific principles. Watch NCAR staff launch 
balloons that gather data for studying the atmosphere 
(weather permitting), and visit NCAR's fascinating 30-
foot-long wind tunnel. Sit in on live weather briefings 
from around the country or cruise the information 
superhighwayÑvisiting the 61 member universities of 
NCAR's parent organization, located throughout North 
America. For a more extensive visit to the world of 
computers, sample the many sources of information about 
weather and climate available on the World Wide Web or 
watch three-dimensional images of thunderstorms and 
dangerous wind shear in the same kind of video displays 
that commerical pilots may use in the future.
	These and more hands-on exhibits will be at all 
three sites of the University Corporation for Atmospheric 
Research, which runs NCAR and other scientific programs 
in Boulder. The three sites are the I.M. PeiÐdesigned 
Mesa Laboratory at the west end of Table Mesa Drive in 
south Boulder; the Foothills Laboratory at 3450 Mitchell 
Lane, just off Foothills Parkway in northeast Boulder; 
and the Research Aviation Facility at Jefferson County 
Airport, west of Broomfield.  
	If you have already visited the Mesa Lab, consider a 
trip to view exhibits at the Foothills Lab or the 
research aircraft at Jefferson County Airport. Free 
shuttles will run between the Mesa and Foothills labs 
every 15 minutes and connect to public buses at the Table 
Mesa Park-n-Ride. The bus to Broomfield will connect with 
another UCAR shuttle for the short ride to Jefferson 
County Airport  
	At the Jeffco airport, you will be able to explore a 
fleet of research aircraft, including the high-altitude 
WB-57F twin jet and the large-capacity, four-engine 
Lockheed EC-130Q turboprop. A sailplane will also be on 
view.
	For those interested in how scientists study 
climate, take a look into the future with the GENESIS 
exhibit, which shows how NCAR scientists are producing a 
comprehensive computer model of the Earth's climate 
system, including the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere 
interacting with each other. A guide will take you on a 
computer tour of the project, and video displays will 
show simulated seasonal changes and how the earth's 
future climate may be transformed.  
		Information can be obtained through a special 
open-house phone line, 303-497-8670.  NCAR is managed by 
UCAR under sponsorship of the National Science 
Foundation.

ÑThe EndÑ

Writers:  David Hosansky and Bob Henson