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Insight, creativity, imagination: these are the traits that join quantitative rigor to make science happen. Since 1960, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have teamed with their university partners to explore the atmosphere and its surroundings: sun, ocean, land, and ice. In this 40thanniversary report, we tell the story of UCAR and NCAR and illustrate the art of atmospheric science.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a consortium of over 60 university members, each of which grants doctoral degrees in the atmospheric and related sciences, plus an increasing number of academic and international affiliates and corporate partners. The UCAR mission is to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the university community, nationally and internationally; to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related systems and the global environment; and to foster the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth.
UCAR manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the UCAR Office of Programs. NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which also supports some parts of UOP. Various NCAR and UOP activities are also funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A board of trustees elected from consortium members manages UCAR. This unique governance ensures that NCAR and UOP fully serve the atmospheric and related-sciences communities. When new scientific, technological, or educational tools emerge that may have a broader use in society, UCAR makes them available commercially through direct transfer or through the UCAR Foundation.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) provides members, affiliates, and other researchers with tools, such as aircraft and radar, to observe the atmosphere. NCAR also provides the technology and assistance, including supercomputer access, computer models, and user support, to interpret and use these observations. NCAR and university scientists collaborate on research topics in atmospheric chemistry, climatology, cloud physics and storms, weather hazards to aviation, and interactions between the Sun and Earth. In all of these areas, scientists are looking closely at the role of humanity in both creating change and responding to weather and climate.
The UCAR Office of Programs (UOP) creates, conducts, and coordinates projects to strengthen education, research, and technology in the atmospheric and related sciences. UOP helps organize multiagency experiments, supports satellite-based Earth and atmospheric monitoring, provides real-time weather data for research and education, manages visiting scientist programs for federal agencies, links universities and operational forecast offices, and trains working forecasters and university instructors in the latest meteorological research.
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