Knowledge for All Knowledge for All: timeline In their own words: John Zillman

UCAR at 40 Who We Are Introduction One Planet, One Atmosphere Between Sun and Earth Measuring and Modeling When Weather Matters Most Spreading the Word •Knowledge for All Looking toward the Future UCAR at a Glance List of acronyms

1960s

1961 • Chaotic Weather From its inception, NCAR hosts scientists from around the world for periods ranging from a few days to a year or more. One of these visitors is Edward Lorenz (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who notes the sensitivity of long-range weather forecasts to small differences in the initial conditions. Lorenz's work on chaos theory is bolstered by frequent visits and collaborations with NCAR scientists.

1974 • Opening GATE Launched seven years earlier, the Global Atmospheric Research Program carries out its landmark GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment after years of planning, orchestrated largely by UCAR, among participants worldwide. GATE establishes UCAR as an organizer of large initiatives involving the global community of atmospheric and related sciences. In 1978–79, the First GARP Global Experiment (depicted here) studied the global atmospheric circulation and related weather systems.

1979 • Microburst Hunt The University of Chicago hosts NIMROD, the first study of wind shear's threat to aviation. It was followed by the Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) conducted by NCAR and the University of Chicago in 1982. In 1984, with support from the Federal Aviation Administration, NCAR organizes the Classify, Locate, and Avoid Wind Shear (CLAWS) study at Denver's Stapleton International Airport. Later in the 1980s, NCAR and collaborators expand on JAWS/CLAWS findings to develop a successful wind-shear warning system for U.S. airports.

1983 • Data for Academia The University Data Program (Unidata) is launched with NSF funding to provide campuses with software and technical support for acquiring up- to-the-minute weather data. By the 1990s, Unidata is serving well over 100 U.S. colleges and universities.

1986 • UCAR Foundation The UCAR Foundation is established as UCAR's sole agent for commercializing technology. The not-for-profit foundation was created to fulfill UCAR's technology transfer obligation and to increase the potential value of intellectual properties. It licenses NCAR-based technology to non-UCAR organizations and transfers technology to its own subsidiaries, such as WITI (see 1991).

1986 • Focus on Earth Studies UCAR creates the Office for Interdisciplinary Earth Studies. Over the following decade, OIES supports collaborative research and sponsors a yearly Global Change Institute focusing on key topics in Earth systems science.

1986 • International Links Six institutions outside North America (including Germany's Forschungszentrum Jülich, whose instruments are pictured here) join UCAR's new International Affiliates Program. In 1991, the Academic Affiliates Program is founded, bringing in colleges and universities that grant bachelor's- or master's-level degrees in the atmospheric or related sciences. Both programs grow rapidly through the 1990s.

1990 • COMET Arrives With support from the nation's civilian and military weather services, the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) opens its doors at UCAR. Hundreds of forecasters take multimedia courses on site in Boulder and at their workplaces through teleconferencing, CD-ROM modules, and the Internet.

1991 • WITI Founded two years earlier, Weather Information Technologies, Inc., becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the UCAR Foundation. Profits from WITI activity go to the UCAR Foundation, with a portion supporting new NCAR research. WITI becomes primary contractor for the weather-warning systems at Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok Airport. In 2000, WITI Corp. is sold to LifeMinders.com.

1995 • GPS/MET A Pegasus rocket launches a small satellite into low Earth orbit on April 3 with a laptop-sized Global Positioning System receiver on board. The GPS/MET (GPS/Meteorology) experiment, led by scientists at UCAR, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Arizona, demonstrates the potential for using GPS signals to measure temperature, water vapor, and pressure in the troposphere and stratosphere, as well as electron density profiles in the ionosphere.

1997 • Safer Skies NCAR tests a deicing support system at New York's LaGuardia and Chicago's O'Hare airports. The system provides detailed snowfall predictions up to 30 minutes in advance, helping participating airlines to reduce takeoff delays, increase safety, and save money on deicing procedures. The program is one of many aviation initiatives carried out by NCAR in the 1990s to address turbulence, thunderstorms, icing, and other weather hazards.