NCAR Offers Guided Tours

BOULDER -- The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is offering guided noontime tours of its Mesa Laboratory on Mondays and Wednesdays. (The fall-winter schedule runs from September 9, 1998, through June 9, 1999, when the daily summer tour schedule will resume.) For individuals and families, no reservations are needed. There is no fee. The Mesa Laboratory, a dramatic creation by world-famous architect I.M. Pei, is located at the west end of Table Mesa Drive (exit off U.S. 36) in southwest Boulder.

The hour-long noontime tours include hands-on exhibits, designed by the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco, that illustrate lightning, tornadoes, and other atmospheric phenomena. Also in the tour are interactive displays on real-time weather and on climate change, exhibits on aviation weather hazards, and various weather instruments. NCAR's scientific computing facility, with several high-performance supercomputers (from Cray Research, Hewlett-Packard, and Silicon Graphics) is also on view.

Besides the science, visitors can enjoy the building itself, inspired by Mesa Verde, and its spectacular setting next to Boulder's Flatirons. Two art galleries offer changing displays of local artists, and the library and cafeteria are open to the public on weekdays.

Among the hiking trails just outside the door is the Walter Orr Roberts Weather Trail, a unique self-guided tour that introduces visitors to the area's weather and climate as well as to plant and animal life on the NCAR mesa. The trail, a 0.4-mile (0.6-kilometer) loop, is accessible by wheelchair, as is the Mesa Lab itself.

For those who cannot take the noontime guided tour, a self-guided tour is available throughout the day, seven days a week. The building's hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

The noontime tours are for individuals and families; organized groups wishing to tour NCAR should make a reservation for another time of day by calling 303-497-1173.

NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation.

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research welcomes visitors to its mesatop laboratory, designed by I.M. Pei. Among the attractions are interactive science exhibits and the nation's only interpretive weather trail.