February 23, 1998
MEMORANDUM
| TO: | UCAR Board of Trustees UCAR Member Representatives UCAR University Relations Committee UCAR Academic Affiliates |
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| FROM: | Richard A. Anthes |
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| SUBJECT: | President's Report for March 10-11 1998 Board of Trustees meeting and April 14-15 URC meeting |
Ladies and Gentlemen:
This six-month report to you covers some of the highlights of UCAR Corporate activities since the UCAR Members meeting in October 1997. Bob Serafin and Jack Fellows summarize activities of NCAR and the UCAR Office of Programs (UOP) in the NCAR Report and the UOP Report.
1.0 Summary
Highlights of UCAR corporate offices (President's Office, Corporate Affairs and Finance and Administration) during the past six months include working with NSF and NCAR on the review of the UCAR proposal to renew the cooperative agreement with NSF to manage and operate NCAR; working on many complex issues associated with the COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) project, developing the Alliance for Capacity Transfer (ACT) program, developing a comprehensive Information Technology strategy to improve how UCAR serves the atmospheric science community and does business, preparing for and participating in the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and various meetings associated with it, initiating discussions with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about possible collaboration in climate and disease studies, working with Environment Canada on a study "Communicating Science," and working with the AMS to establish a joint AMS-UCAR Congressional Fellow position.
Following these reviews, we prepared a proposal for the next five-year cooperative agreement with NSF. This proposal was submitted to the NSF in September 1997 and was reviewed by an NSF-appointed panel 18-20 November 1997. I summarize the results of this positive review in Appendix A, which will appear in the Spring 1998 issue of the UCAR Quarterly. We hope to get approval from NSF and the National Science Board in May to negotiate a new 5-year agreement with the NSF.
1.2 COSMIC
On April 3, 1995, a low-cost experimental LEO (low-earth orbiting) satellite known as MicroLab-1 (ML-1) was launched to test new atmospheric sounding technique. ML-1 uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) to derive important weather and climate research parameters, including atmospheric temperature, moisture, and pressure. The GPS instrument on ML-1, known as GPS/MET, also measures electron density, of interest for ionospheric research and space weather. Since the launch of ML-1, more than 100,000 atmospheric profiles have been collected, stimulating broad international research to verify the accuracy and utility of the data. This proof-of-concept experiment was made possible by a grant from NSF, with additional support from NASA, NOAA, the FAA and the private sector. The entire project cost approximately $10 million and was managed by UCAR.
While GPS/MET data compare very favorably with conventional and much costlier weather satellite data, a single satellite with one instrument cannot produce enough data globally to meet the requirements for atmospheric research and prediction. As described in my September 19, 1997 report to the Board, the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan has shown great interest in supporting COSMIC---the next stage of the GPS/MET experiment. The current plan for COSMIC is to launch a constellation of approximately eight satellites to provide much higher-resolution and with global coverage data sets that can be used by researchers world wide for studies of meteorology, ionosphere and climate. The program will involve the UCAR GPS/MET team, UNAVCO, NCAR, universities in the U.S. and Taiwan, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and industries in the U.S. and Taiwan.
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Simulation of the daily (24 hrs) spatial coverage obtained by the COSMIC Constellation. Approximately 4,000 soundings per day.
A global data collection network and operations center will process COSMIC space and ground observations and deliver products to users in real-time for operational demonstration and impact studies. The COSMIC constellation will be launched early in the year 2001 and operated for at least 2 years for a total of approximately $100 million. The National Science Council of Taiwan through the National Space Program Office (NSPO) will provide significant financial and technical support for this collaborative project. Some additional modest support is required from the US.
COSMIC will be implemented through an agreement between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the United States, two non-government organizations. Approximately 100 joint collaborative projects between institutions in the U.S. and Taiwan have been carried out through AIT-TECRO agreements since 1970. COSMIC is a scientific experiment involving collaboration among scientists in Taiwan and the United States similar to the TAMEX (Taiwan Area Mesoscale Experiment) Project which was carried out in 1987 under an AIT-TECRO agreement. While the technical, organizational, and contractual arrangements are still being discussed, they will be structured to be consistent with current Federal laws and policies, including intellectual property rights and data sharing. The data from the COSMIC scientific experiment will be made available to all interested parties in all countries, free of charge or at the marginal cost of reproduction and distribution.
Because of its importance to atmospheric sciences nationally and internationally and its size and complexity, the early stages of COSMIC have required considerable attention by UCAR and NCAR leadership. UCAR is conducting the Phase II Study under contract with NSPO. The Phase II Study officially started on 4 December 1997 and will end 30 June 1998. The main objectives for this study are: (1) to address diplomatic, contractual and regulatory issues as required to enable, at the earliest possible time, direct collaboration with NSPO on a detailed technical level, (2) to develop additional support for the COSMIC Project from U.S. funding agencies, (3) to define the scientific requirements and milestones for COSMIC, (4) to establish COSMIC science teams and to carry out scientific planning and preliminary scientific research in support of COSMIC, (5) to establish engineering teams for various components of the COSMIC system, and (6) to perform preliminary engineering studies to refine the design of the COSMIC system.
A UCAR COSMIC Project Office was established in early December 1997 in the UCAR Office of Programs. UCAR appointed NCAR Senior Scientist Dr. Ying-Hwa (Bill) Kuo as the COSMIC Project Director, Mr. Michael (Mike) Exner as the COSMIC Systems Manager, Dr. Christian (Chris) Rocken as the COSMIC Chief Scientist, and Dr. Randolph Ware as the COSMIC Senior Advisor. Over the past three months, our efforts have been concentrated on three major areas: (1) preparation for the Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) for Department of State (DOS) approval, (2) planning for a COSMIC Science Workshop in Taiwan, and (3) developing additional support for COSMIC. These efforts will be elaborated below.
Because COSMIC involves the transfer of satellite technology to Taiwan, appropriate export licenses are required to carry out the project. U.S. export licensing responsibilities are split between the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and DOS. Jurisdiction is largely determined by whether a proposed export is identified on the U.S. Munitions List (USML). Space-qualified Global Positioning System receivers are on the USML and, thus, it is clear that DOS has jurisdiction over portions of COSMIC. There may also be some non-USML technologies that fall under DOC control, but all the materials needed for the DOS process should also satisfy the DOC regulations. To comply with U.S. export controls, an organization exporting USML technologies or related information about these technologies to a foreign nation must:
From previous UCAR projects involving exports, neither the registration nor the certification are seen as issues for the COSMIC project, but they will be modified as needed.
Jack Fellows has made two trips to the DOS in Washington DC to establish relationships with DOS export staff and get a better understanding of how to best structure the TAA, MLA, and ECP. We have also met with the DOS-related exports division of a major aerospace firm in Washington DC to discuss the DOS export approval procedures. In addition, we have extensively reviewed the export-related materials of the HIRDLS project that successfully underwent the DOS export approval process in 1996. These trips, contacts, and reviews have proven invaluable in deciding how to best structure these documents.
Because of the importance of these documents, we have engaged the services of a Washington DC-based law firm that specializes in these matters. The lawyers in this firm serve on the export advisory groups to both the DOS and DOC and have extensive experience working with the DOS and DOC export control staffs. They were referred to us by the aerospace firm staff mentioned above and described as the best in the DOS-related export control field. These lawyers have reviewed our drafts and are helping to refine our DOS package. After NSPO review, we hope to have this package submitted to the DOS in late February. We also plan to brief U.S. agency staff who are likely to review our package for DOS. At this point, we are confident that we can gain DOS approval for COSMIC.
Although NSC and NSPO are providing major funding for COSMIC, additional support from U.S. funding agencies are needed to develop the infrastructure of data collection, data processing, data dissemination, and research and operational application. Our collaborators in Taiwan are also under pressure to show financial contributions from the US to this collaborative project. For these reasons, we are devoting a considerable amount of effort to develop additional support for COSMIC. We had several meetings within and outside UCAR and have developed a strategy to solicit additional support for COSMIC. The timing is very important for this effort, as the budget planning process for FY 2000 for various agencies will begin in the spring of 1998. We plan to have a high-level meeting in April or May 1998 in Washington DC to brief program managers from different agencies on the COSMIC plan. We have also begun discussion with JPL to establish a long-term cooperative research and development effort in atmospheric remote sensing. Such collaboration (still under negotiation), if successfully implemented, can bring additional scientific, technical, and funding support for the COSMIC Project.
The scientific goals for COSMIC are to (a) improve global and regional weather forecasting (b) improve global space weather monitoring and forecasting, (c ) provide data sets for climate and global change research, and (d) advance earth gravity field knowledge. In order to reach these ambitious goals, we need to define the scientific requirements and milestones. Although a conceptual plan for the COSMIC system has been prepared, more detailed plans are required for the system design and science in order to fully realize the potential of COSMIC. With these objectives in mind, we planned a COSMIC Science Workshop (http://www.cosmic.ucar.edu/workshop_homepage.htm) in Taipei February 26-28, 1998, in close collaboration with NSPO and the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). In response to a proposal, the NSF International Programs Division provided $50,000 to support the participation of U.S. scientists. The COSMIC Project Office issued invitation packages to over 80 potential participants, and coordinated the participation and travel arrangements of about 40 participants. About 25 of the participants are supported by the COSMIC Project Office.
In summary, UCAR has completed a large number of tasks over the past three months on COSMIC. The project is on track, and we are confident that we will complete the Phase II Study on schedule.
1.3 Development of an Information Technology Strategy for UCAR
Under the leadership of Jack Fellows, UCAR has been developing an institution-wide strategy for information technology. The April 1997 NSF review of NCAR's management by UCAR included a recommendation that UCAR should develop an overarching information technology (IT) strategy and do so in ways that reflect UCAR's role as a leader in the scientific community. This recommendation coincided with an independent effort, by UCAR's IITA Project, to plan an institution-wide workshop on similar topics. Hence, I asked the IITA workshop organizing group to direct its efforts specifically toward helping UCAR respond to the NSF recommendation. Shortly thereafter, I created an Information Technology Council (ITC) and asked that results from the planned workshop be provided to this council as it began developing an overall IT strategy for UCAR.
UCAR organizational units -- both scientific and administrative -- make extensive use of IT and have for many years. Overall, UCAR IT functions are serving the organization satisfactorily. However, it has become increasingly obvious that common solutions to information management are needed in order for UCAR to function even more effectively and efficiently across numerous organizational boundaries. It is clear that we can enhance our service to the UCAR science community and the way we do business by being an innovative leader in IT, both now and in the future. Many near-term and future IT decisions need to by made by the corporation, divisions, and individuals. The ITC wants to make sure that these decisions are made within a common IT framework. For the longer term, UCAR must be positioned to take advantage of IT advances, including under standing the broad range of IT systems being used at UCAR, coordinating administrative jurisdiction over these systems, and being prepared to embrace a technology that is changing at a breath taking pace.
Staff from across UCAR and at all levels participated in developing IT principles at the workshop mentioned above. The ITC then initiated a modeling exercise to identify how we do business as an organization. Roughly 100 UCAR staff participated in more than 70 hours of modeling sessions and were instrumental in highlighting both the IT challenges and opportunities for UCAR. These modeling sessions also examined how different architectures could best support the IT principles. You can learn more about the workshop and modeling sessions on the ITC website (http://www.fin.ucar.edu/itc). This modeling effort used some very exciting modeling techniques (object modeling) that captured many of UCAR's corporate operating practices and helped the ITC identify common information needs and processes that can be easily programmed.
The ITC has developed a draft strategy summary, a set of recommendations, and a high level implementation schedule that will be presented and discussed at two UCAR-wide meetings on March 5th and 6th. The draft recommendations include both near-term IT issues and a longer-term IT vision (e.g., 3 tiered system, object modeling, open standards). Based on UCAR staff comments, the ITC will decide what should be handled centrally, how, and when -- so UCAR staff can plan for the future. If we do this properly, we anticipate that these activities will become leading edge IT efforts that can be adopted by the broader UCAR science community and improve the way we do business. The draft strategy will be presented to the Board once the ITC can incorporate this important feedback from UCAR staff.
1.4 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting
We spent considerable time preparing for and participating in the annual meeting of the AMS which was held in Phoenix January 11-16. Harriet Barker and many UCAR staff prepared an outstanding exhibit which covered the broad range of research, educational and service activities of NCAR and UOP. I gave an invited overview talk on GPS/MET and COSMIC. Many of us attended meetings of the US Weather Research Program, the UCAR NCEP Advisory Committee, and the UCAR Academic Affiliates. We also had a meeting with NSF-ATM on the WB-57 aircraft situation and several informal meetings with Zou Jingmeng and a delegation of eight Chinese scientists.
1.5 Relationship between climate variability and change and infectious disease
In recent years there has been considerable speculation and discussion about the possible connections between climate variability and climate change and the spread of infectious vector-borne diseases such as malaria, Lyme disease, dengue fever and other diseases. For example, a news story in the Sydney Morning Herald dated January 31, 1998 reports
"For the second time in six months, the world is glimpsing the health consequences of escalating climate change. After triggering the choking havoc of smoke from Indonesian forest fires late last year, the worst El Nino for 50 years has in the past two months unleashed plagues of disease across east Africa in the wake of unprecedented dry-season rains and floods."
"Cholera and malaria have claimed record numbers of victims across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia. Pests, such as a toxic insect known as the Nairobi fly, have proliferated. Locusts may be on the way."
"However, most frightening of all is an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever, a cattle disease that has decimated herds across eastern Kenya and southern Somalia and jumped the species barrier to kill hundreds of humans."
"Rains in parts of Kenya in the past month have been 20 times normal. El Niño, a climatic convulsion in the Pacific, has warped tropical weather fronts round the globe and left a band of intense rain, known as the inter-tropical convergence zone, over the country for weeks on end."
(For full story see: http://www.smh.com.au:80/daily/content/980131/world/world4.html)
While it is certain that there are links between climate and disease, concerns have been raised that the connections have been exaggerated and that the scientific basis needs strengthening. Phrases like "climatic convulsions" may not be helpful. Please see, for example, the article "Apocalypse Not," SCIENCE, Vol. 278, 7 November 1997, p. 1004-1006.
UCAR and NCAR have had several discussions with one of the leaders in the medical science community on this issue, Dr. Duane Gubler, Director of the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases of the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Ft. Collins. (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/dvbid.htm) The first of these occurred at the AMS meeting in Phoenix and this was followed up by a visit to UCAR from Gubler and several of his staff in January. The next step will be a visit to Gubler’s laboratory by interested UCAR staff in February or March following by a workshop in the spring. The University of Colorado, Colorado State, and the NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center will also be involved. These discussions may lead to collaborative efforts in the future.
1.6 A study with Environment Canada--"Communicating Science"
We have all heard the many calls from the scientific leadership of the nation (e.g. Neal Lane) about the importance of the scientific community communicating more often and more effectively with the public and policy makers. UCAR invests a significant amount of resources (money and time of communications staff, management and scientific staff, and other staff and volunteers) into communication of science to the public, and judging from awards and other feedback we have received we seem to be doing as well as or better than most organizations in this respect. A recent opportunity has come up to compare our experience with that of Environment Canada.
I am a member of Environment Canada’s (EC) Research and Development Advisory Board (I am the only non-Canadian member and the only atmospheric scientist). This Board has formed several working groups, one of them "Communicating Science." The other member of this team is Peter Calamai, a "veteran journalist with a long interest in science and technology" and a three-time winner of Canada’s highest honor for journalism, the National Newspaper Award. "Communicating Science" will be one of the two main agenda items at the next meeting of the R&D Board, which is 17 March, 1998.
As a contribution to the Environment Canada study we prepared a summary of UCAR activities in the communication arena (Appendix B).
1.7 Joint AMS-UCAR Congressional Fellow Position
Jack Fellows has been working with Dick Hallgren to establish a joint AMS-UCAR Congressional Fellow Position. We are hoping to establish the position for an initial five years in order to allow the AMS and UCAR to evaluate the program. The fellowship will likely be administered through the AAAS.
1.8 Alliance for Capacity Transfer (ACT)
ACT is a concept developed over the past three years through discussions among UCAR, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Leading this effort is Roland List (U. Toronto) and Bob Duce (Texas A&M), who are executive director and president of the IAMAS respectively. Through their efforts the WMO and IUGG, specifically WMO Secretary General Patrick Obasi and IUGG President Philip Wylie (Cal Tech), have joined to express support for ACT.
The purpose of ACT is to exploit the capabilities of the Web to the benefit of atmospheric students, faculty, researchers and forecast offices around the world. The idea is to have a Web site that is highly selective in its contents and links, that can serve as a one-stop shopping site for people interested in the atmospheric sciences from many perspectives. The Unidata paradigm will be followed ---participating institutions will have an ownership role to develop and maintain the information they want to be available to the ACT site visitors.
A test web site for the Alliance has been created by UCAR and is available at: www.ucar.edu/act/. An important goal is to make the site as user accessible as possible, with several different users in mind. Thus, students, teachers, private citizens, research scientists will all find sign posts directing them to information of particular relevance to them. A significant challenge is to select what links should be established; there are thousands possible, but not all are equally useful. A second challenge is to keep the site up-to-date. Both of these aspects require the attention and management of people who are able to judge what information is likely to be of greatest value to site visitors, and decide when and if material should be added, deleted or changed.
Meanwhile, work with R. List (IAMAS & McGill) to engage the WMO continues. In a communiqué following the AMS meeting (at which the ACT site was demo-ed at the UCAR booth in the exhibit hall), List summarized the next steps and enlisted WMO participation in them. Primary among these is the systematic notification of the "NMHSs" (National Meteorological and Hydrologic Services) about ACT, solicitation of their comments about the beta-site, and provision of what information they would find most useful on such a site. Additionally, we are encouraging List to establish a prototype "chat room" which List would run (with colleague Delsol), on cloud physics and weather modification.
And, finally, H. Barker is serving on the program committee for the 1998 Computing in the Atmospheric Sciences international workshop, to be held in late June-early July (B. Buzbee chairs the committee). Barker will seek to involve UCAR International Affiliates in the workshop, including finding funding for IAPs in developing countries to participate.
2.0 Corporate Affairs
Corporate Affairs responsibilities include coordination of UCAR-wide education programs; management and implementation of UCAR's communications program; management and operation of "institutional advancement" activities, carried out through proposal development, fund raising and government affairs offices; and oversight and management of all UCAR governance activities, including the trustee and member-related activities, such as the NSF review and SPEC's participation therein.
2.1 Education
UCAR 2001 establishes the context for education activities at UCAR in two ways: a statement of the goal
"to devote significant attention to education and training, with emphasis on women and minorities" and a forecast for accomplishment by the year 2001
"UCAR's educational programs, in consort with the educational community, will be directed at precollege, college, university and postgraduate students and faculty, and the general public, and will be recognized as making significant contributions at all of these levels."
2.1.1 LEARN.
Atmospheric Explorers. Following the June summer institute, attended by 33 rural Colorado teachers, LEARN staff and NCAR scientists have delivered academic year inservice training in the eight rural regions. The three-day training sessions focus on scientific content, pedagogy, standards, and computer-based technology resources. The content focus of the training this year has been El Niño and the sun's radiation and their effect on weather and climate. To date 23 days of training have been given in the rural regions, and a total of 167 teachers have participated. Approximately 835 students have attended the Science Explorers day which provides both teachers and students opportunities in experiential learning.
2.1.2 SkyMath.
The first module is complete, has been tested in over a dozen schools around the country, and has been given high ratings by professional assessors as well as by the teachers who use it. Please check out the SkyMath Web site: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/Skymath.html
2.1.3 GCIP.
The Global Change Instruction Program (GCIP) provides modular materials on global change topics for the undergraduate, survey-level classes. The final units in this program are being readied for classroom testing this spring. They are on Biogeochemical Cycles (Fred Mackenzie, U. of Hawaii), Energy Use (Arthur Few, Rice U.), and The Carbon Cycle (Elizabeth Sulzman, NCAR). An RFP has been issued to produce a short video primer on modeling to accompany Arthur Few's already-published module on this topic. This activity is funded by NSF EHR Undergraduate Curriculum Development.
2.1.4 Program for the Advancement of Geoscience Education (PAGE).
Community Needs Assessment. PAGE staff has just completed the first phase of the community needs assessment for geoscience education. Six focus groups, comprised of 38 faculty from a variety of institutions, met this past fall. The purpose of the focus groups was to gather input to shape the appropriate scope and role of UCAR involvement in the issues of undergraduate geoscience education. Preliminary findings indicate that the strongest needs of the community include:
Additional issues that surfaced during the focus groups were the awareness of and sensitivity to an expanded community (i.e., community colleges, teacher preparatory institutions), and collaborative efforts among the disciplines of Atmospheric Science, Hydrology, Oceanography and Solid Earth Studies. Next steps for the needs assessment are to:
PAGE and the Geoscience Community. PAGE is governed by a fourteen-member Steering Committee, which takes an active role in setting programmatic direction and priorities. The first meeting of the Committee was in Boulder on Nov. 4-5. The committee issued a strong call of support for PAGE, and requested that it be actively involved in proposal solicitation and new program development.
2.1.5 Future programs
Mathematics for a Blue Planet. This is a follow on to Skymath, which will lead to at least one and hopefully two new modules for teaching middle school math using weather as the subject. Funding possibilities with NASA's MTPE and the NSA are actively being pursued.
Collaboration with Local Television Stations. Opportunities for collaboration between LEARN and local television stations are being explored. Through a proposed partnership with CBS Corporation (KCNC Channel 4), UCAR will develop of suite of materials targeted at the educational community (especially middle school teachers and learners) and weather enthusiasts for delivery via on-air programming. Materials from the Project LEARN teaching materials will be used to provide learning experiences related to weather programming for KCNC viewing audiences. The partnership with KCNC provides the potential for further dissemination via other CBS affiliates around the country.
Visualization Laboratory Clones. Work is being pursued with SCD to submit a proposal to NSF's Informal Science Education Program to make two "copies" of the Visualization Laboratory. One will be installed in the new Mesa Lab Theatre (the old smoking lounge on the first floor). The other will be loaned to museums and other public venues around the country. Existing 3-D model material will be adapted for the general public audience with the possibility of some interactivity being explored. If a third copy is made, it will rotate among regional K-12 schools.
Knowledge and Distribute Intelligence (KDI). The RFP for this new NSF initiative has just been issued and UCAR is considering whether and how to propose. There are activities in UOP and NCAR that relate to KDI goals and the challenge will be to make appropriate connections among them as well as with university colleagues who have the interest and expertise to contribute, and to do so rather quickly. Letters of intent are due 1 April. A working group will consider how best UCAR and its university partners might participate in KDI.
CIRE (Collaboratives to Integrate Research and Education). This new NSF initiative "seeks to establish long-term research and education relationships between minority-serving institutions and NSF-supported centers or facilities. UCAR is working on two proposals, one joint with the Metropolitan University of Puerto Rico-UMET (a participant in NSF's Models of Institutional Excellence program) and the other with Jackson State University.
For the UMET project, the research is based on a flux measurement system to be built by ATD and installed in Puerto Rico. NCAR's Dave Schimel will be a PI on this project and the University of Colorado at Boulder is collaborating by hosting UMET students for summer internships. The Jackson State project will involve the use of satellite data with UCAR participating through PAGE.
2.2 Communications
ClimateStock. We have launched a new program, with funding from the EPA, to bring footage on climate issues to weather broadcasters and other television producers. We are calling these products ClimateStock, and our first half-hour of video footage, on El Niño, went out to broadcasters in October with an updated rebroadcast in February. Thanks to the high interest in this topic, edited portions of this video were used 203 times in the first month alone, reaching 19 million viewers. We've had appreciative comments from weather broadcasters as well as documentary and network producers who have used it. (The video is composed of clips intended to be edited by broadcasters themselves-it is not a finished product.) The next product, on global temperatures and climate change, is in production.
Highlights. The 1998-99 Highlights document, due to be published at the end of the summer, is on the theme Atmospheric Science at the Millennium. It will examine the state of atmospheric research and NCAR/UOP's role in a societal and historical context. Seven four-page features will each span several current NCAR/UOP projects linked by a common theme (e.g., turbulence) and will note their relevance to society. Highlights is a short, popularly written report intended for interested lay people including policy makers, educators, and others.
Experts list. We are developing an on-line list of experts on scientific and technical topics that we plan ultimately to put on the Web (with the permission of the cited scientists). The current version will include UCAR and NCAR staff only, but the site could be expanded to include links to member universities as well.
Reader's survey. The spring issue of the UCAR Quarterly will include a readers' survey, the first since 1991. The questionnaire is designed to elicit not only feedback on the Quarterly itself but information on who our readers are, what kinds of information readers currently receive and would like to receive from UCAR, and what communications tools (email, Web) they prefer to use.
Media. This has been a particularly busy season for media relations, due both to the prominence of El Niño reporting and to coverage of the climate change issue. We've had over 100 pages of press clips per month over the last several months-an unprecedented volume-and much attention from national and international radio and television. We have recently worked with documentary producers from Nova/PBS (El Niño), the BBC/Discovery (El Niño and Cloud Seeding) and Italian and German networks. We are also increasingly supplying information to the burgeoning Web sites maintained by news organizations.
Internal announcements. Our electronic newsletter, This Week at UCAR, is now available in an enhanced Web version (http://www.ucar.edu/communications/thisweek/), with hot links to related web pages and to contacts' email.
2.3 Office of Development and Government Affairs
The Office of Development and Government Affairs (ODGA) includes activities related to government affairs (interactions with the Congress and UCAR community), development (explore funding opportunities), and the Walter Orr Roberts Institute programs.
Government Affairs (GA)
Many of the GA activities outlined below are coordinated with Lewis-Burke Associates in Washington, D.C. Support is received from them almost on a daily basis.
Advocacy Priorities. Among the highest priorities for FY98-99 UCAR advocacy activities on behalf of the community will be the following programs. Information on the advocacy strategy for priorities will be presented by Burke and Schmidt at the board meeting.
Congressional Activity Highlights. Communications with Congressional representatives and staffers continue to be a very high ODGA priority with goals being to keep them informed of climate- and weather- related research results, demonstrate that this research is socially relevant, have input on climate- and weather-related policy and legislative issues, and enhance UCAR's and the community's reputation in Washington as a source for credible, non-partisan information on climate- and weather-related topics. To reach these goals, we have accomplished the following activities during the last six months:
Development
The major ODGA development functions are to provide information for funding opportunities to UCAR staff and member universities, to assist with or originate grant proposals to support and enhance UCAR activities, and to offer training in researching grant opportunities and writing grant proposals.
To those ends in the past six months, the ODGA has:
Walter Orr Roberts Institute Programs
The following projects are being presented as Institute programs. We are now doing some planning to see if a Roberts speakers/colloquium series and possible visitors/fellowship program might be established using the private money raised for the Institute and by seeking additional funds.
The Colorado Industrial Ecology Program. If successful, this project will demonstrate "closed-cycle industry" by identifying opportunities to convert the waste of one industry to feed stock for another, thereby imitating the efficiencies of natural ecosystems. This is a demonstration project, possibly the only one of its kind in the country, based on the successful experiment in Kalundborg, Denmark. The initial participants are the Coors Brewing Company; Conoco; Hewlett-Packard (Loveland and Fort Collins plants); Lockheed Martin; Syntex Chemicals, Inc.; Earthgrains, Chemrex; and the City of Loveland, Colorado. Discussions are under way with several potential participants, both industrial and municipal. The goal is to have a critical base of 20 to 25 industry participants.
A grant for $49,000 has just been committed (verbally only so far) by Governor Romer's Office of Energy Conservation. This will allow us to continue through calendar year '98 with the subcontract for the excellent work being done on data collection by Colorado State University. The project is gaining momentum and attracting some public attention, particularly because of a recent article published in the Boulder Daily Camera highlighting this effort. This article can be accessed on the WEB at www.bouldernews.com/BoulderNews/HealthScience/Discovery/html/X_9802160566.htm.
The Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative. The BCHCI continues its efforts to promote healthy decision-making that will sustain the environmental quality, livability, and economic vibrancy of the Boulder County region. The first Report Card on Community Health is being prepared for publication in April. The report will present both positive and negative trends in a wide range of community indicators, including education, governance, public safety, environmental quality, economic prosperity, and individual well-being. Following publication of the report, the BCHCI will convene forums to explore methods for the community to address the its most pressing needs and concerns.
2.4 Corporate Affairs Activities and Governance Matters
This group's primary responsibilities are coordinating the business and meetings of the Board & Members' and their respective committees, and coordinating the UCAR website-UCARweb. Staff members are Susan Friberg, Susan Warner, Bethany Hobson and Michelle Flores.
This time of year, the work of three of the four Members' Committees begins in full force: the University Relations Committee, the Membership Committee and the Members Nominating Committee.
The University Relations Committee holds their spring meeting in April in Norman, Oklahoma. We are supporting this meeting and working with the URC leadership to develop a URC workplan for the next several years. The URC is planning a mini-retreat on this issue for the Norman meeting. Jenny Moody (U of Va) chairs the committee and her URC web site is: http://aerial.evsc.virginia.edu/~jlm8h/urc/urc.html.
As well, the Membership and Nominating Committees are scheduled to meet and carry out their respective tasks this spring. The Membership Committee, chaired by Mary Jo Richardson (Texas A & M) will be reviewing the following applications for renewal of UCAR Membership: University at Albany; State U of New York; Harvard University; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Scripps Institution of Oceanography-University of California, San Diego; and University of Toronto. The Academic Affiliate institutions up for renewal are the University of Charleston; Clark Atlanta University; and Rhodes College. There are no new applications for Membership this cycle.
The Nominating Committee, chaired by Ben Herman (U of AZ), will review Trustee and Committee nominations, and create a slate for the October Meeting elections at their spring meeting. Solicitations for Trustee and Committee nominations will be sent to Members Reps, all UCAR governance committees' members later this month.
Planning for the 1998 Annual October Meetings (5-8 Oct) will begin shortly. We welcome ideas from the Trustees and others as we develop the agendas for the Board, Members, Academic Affiliates, and URC Meetings. The AMS/UCAR Heads and Chairs will also meet this year on 8-9 October.
Alliance for Capacity Transfer (ACT)
We continue to work with Roland List (IUGG/IAMAS) and Harriet Barker on the
Alliance for Capacity Transfer (ACT) to evolve a useful website for the UCAR
community as well as for the international community of researchers, faculty
and students.
3.0 Finance and Administration
Effective October 1, 1997, the Facilities Support Services (FSS) organization, formerly part of NCAR, was merged with Finance and Administration. FSS has responsibility for all maintenance, engineering and construction, as well as services such as security, mail and the cafeteria.
3.2 NSF Cooperative Agreement
NSF program officials have sent a letter to NSF Director Neal Lane recommending that the UCAR Cooperative Agreement for the operation of NCAR be renewed for an additional five years. The next step in the process involves a meeting of the Director's Review Board on March 24, 1998, followed by a decision by the National Science Board in May.
Despite the fact that the decision has not been finalized, we have begun discussions with the NSF about some changes we would like to make in the next cooperative agreement, primarily in the areas of the review process, reporting and the dollar thresholds for various approvals.
3.3 Audited Financial Statements
Deloitte and Touche completed their audit of our fiscal year 1997 financial statements in January, resulting in a "clean" opinion. They also acknowledged our progress on resolving observations and recommendations identified in previous audits.
3.4 Data Warehousing Project
We have made significant progress in implementing the Data Warehousing (DW) project. The DW will provide extensive capability in the retrieval and display of information. The first phase focuses on financial information, but the ultimate goal will be to provide the warehouse capability for all types of administrative data. The staffing process is underway and we have completed the procurement of three critical software elements. The aggressive schedule for fiscal year 1998 is testing our stamina and adaptability, but we are confident that we will complete the first phase on schedule.
3.5 Year 2000 (Y2K)
The upcoming year 2000 will present some significant issues for computing and operational systems for many organizations, including UCAR. For example, many computer systems, applications, and imbedded chips in all sorts of equipment use only two digits to represent the year, leaving the systems incapable of distinguishing between 1900 and 2000. This could affect results of calculations of elapsed time, expiration dates, required service periods, etc., as well as potentially causing programs to fail or abort, assuming year 00 dates to be errors. Additionally, there could be a number of less obvious cases where the inability to discern correct dates could cause systems to make incorrect assumptions, resulting in errors or system failures.
UCAR has been notified by the Director of the NSF that we are responsible for "taking all steps necessary to mitigate potential problems that might be caused by the Year 2000." NSF has requested, and we have provided, a comprehensive Y2K plan document, following guidelines developed by the GAO. At this time, the planning process is progressing through the GAO- mandated Awareness Phase, and has begun the critical phase of Assessment. During this period (through September 1998), we will complete an inventory of all potentially vulnerable systems and identify all "mission-critical" systems. We must also design and set up appropriate testing strategies, including the possibility of dedicated test facilities. We are also monitoring our major system vendors on their progress toward Y2K compliance and requiring certain critical vendors to warrant their products to be Y2K compliant as a contractual condition.
3.6 Mesa Lab Refurbishment
The NSF Budget Proposal for FY 1999 includes $4 million for the Mesa refurbishment, which is the first installment in a three year effort totaling $12 million. The funds will be used for critical infrastructure repairs and improvements. We are currently developing a detailed project and management plan for the refurbishment effort.
4.0 Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS)
In 1996, UCAR, NCAR and UOP staff, the NSF and the university community combined efforts to inaugurate an education outreach program that creates a four-year pipeline to bring ethnically diverse students into careers in the atmospheric and related sciences, including engineering, mathematics and social sciences. Its primary goal is to significantly increase the number of women and minority students enrolled in Masters and Ph.D. programs in the atmospheric and related sciences, which ultimately will lead to an increase in their representation in the scientific community of the future. With NSF funding, UCAR recruited academically talented African American, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students for participation in the program beginning in June 1996.
As described in the SOARS Annual Report for 1997, good progress was made during 1997, the second year of the SOARS program. Seventeen students participated in SOARS during the summer, working on a variety of projects with NCAR scientists. Thirty-nine universities are now formally part of SOARS (formal participation means that the university provides half of the expenses for SOARS students attending the university). During FY 1997 partnerships with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the NOAA Office of Global Programs each provided funding for an additional student (protégé) bringing the total number of funded positions for FY 1997 from 12 to 14. A recent partnership with the Department of Energy Environmental Science Division will support four additional positions bringing the total number of protégé positions to 18 for FY 1998.
SOARS program director Tom Windham gave a talk " SOARS-A Model Learning Community and Mentoring Program for Promoting Racial and Gender Equity in the Atmospheric and Related Sciences" at the AMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix. This paper is an excellent description of SOARS and the protégés and their projects and mentors.
5.0 UCAR Foundation, Intellectual
Property, Technology Commercialization,
and Weather Information Technologies, Inc.
As stated in UCAR 2001, the goals of UCAR's technology transfer activities are: (1) to ensure that work of value developed at UCAR will benefit society and (2) to develop an additional source of revenue to support UCAR's scientific, technological and educational programs. The new Technology Transfer/UCAR Foundation website has been completed at http://www.ucar.edu/tech. Several orders for NCAR Graphics have been received through the website in addition to a variety of technology transfer inquiries.
The new Technology Transfer/UCAR Foundation website has been completed at http://www.ucar.edu/tech. Several orders for NCAR Graphics have been received through the website in addition to a variety of technology transfer inquiries.
5.1 Intellectual Property Management Program
To date the Intellectual Property Management Program has logged 270 technology disclosures for intellectual property protection, evaluation, and potential commercialization. Since October 1, 1997, two patents have issued: 1) Atmospheric Water Vapor Sensing System Using Global Positioning Satellites, by Randolph Ware, et al. (UNAVCO) and; 2) Multipipeline Multiprocessor System, by Paul Swarztrauber (SCD).
Two patent applications were filed: 1) System for Determination of Optimal Travel Path in a Multidimensional Space, by William Myers (RAP) and; 2) Method and Apparatus Using Slant-Path Water Delay Estimates to Correct Global Positioning Satellite Survey Error, by Randolph Ware, et al. (UNAVCO).
5.2 Technology Commercialization Program
The UCAR Foundation (UCARF) continues to focus on the commercialization of UCAR technologies through licensing. Some of the more important recent activities are described below.
Low-Level Wind-Shear Alert System (LLWAS)
LLWAS is a ground-based array of anemometers and associated computer hardware and software that is designed to provide advance warning to air traffic controllers and pilots of impending wind shear and microburst events. UCARF has four active LLWAS licensees -- Aviation Safety Technologies, Inc. of Sarasota, FL; Almos Systems Pty. Ltd. of Australia; Vaisala Inc. - Artais Division of Plain City, OH; and Teledyne Controls of Los Angles, CA. Additionally, an evaluation license in place with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology is soon to become operational and should result in a $30,000 payment to UCARF. UCARF also expects to receive an additional $50,000 from Artais by the end of April for a planned installation in Singapore.
LD2 Dropwindsonde
The LD2 dropwindsonde is a pressure-temperature-humidity sensing device that is deployed from an aircraft. The LD2 was exclusively licensed to Radian Corporation in 1992. Radian's license has been extended through December 1999 in order to facilitate existing customer orders. Radian's customers include the U.S. Air Force, NOAA, NASA, and foreign governments and weather services. In October, UCARF received a $15,679 royalty payment from Radian. Sales of the LD2 dropwindsonde will likely decline as it is replaced in the market by the new GPS-version of the dropwindsonde.
GPS Dropwindsonde
The new GPS version of the dropwindsonde is replacing the LD2. The GPS dropwindsonde was exclusively licensed to Vaisala, Inc. in 1996. The license included a $25,000 up-front payment and a royalty of 7.5% or $25.00, whichever is greater, for each GPS dropwindsonde sold. Since October UCARF has received $50,478 in royalties from Vaisala. In coming months UCARF expects to receive significant additional royalties from sales of the GPS dropwindsonde.
PC-based Integrated Radar Acquisition System (PIRAQ)
PIRAQ is a circuit board and associated software that allows a personal computer to replace several more-expensive, dedicated components for radar data acquisition and processing. PIRAQ is currently licensed on a nonexclusive basis to a Boulder firm, Applied Technologies, Inc. (ATI). ATI has manufactured several units for use in ongoing NCAR/NASA projects and has enhanced the board to satisfy the needs of commercial customers. The enhanced version (VIRAQ) is intended for use in larger data systems and is essentially PIRAQ in a different operating system and computer bus.
ATI has several orders for PIRAQ in progress and recently teamed with Met One Instruments in order to list its products in that company's internationally distributed catalog. Efforts to market PIRAQ to other potential licensees have not yet resulted in any additional licenses.
Relaxed Eddy Accumulator (REA)
The REA is also manufactured by Applied Technologies, Inc. (ATI), and incorporates two UCAR patents nonexclusively licensed to ATI: the Conditional Sampling Technique for Flux Measurement and the Air Sampling Pump System. ATI recently received an order from the EPA for a specially designed REA system. However, this multi-phase project will take several months to complete. To date, UCAR has received a $3,000.00 up-front payment and $1,420.00 in royalties.
WEATHER Software
WEATHER is a software-based application for accessing weather products from a database. Alden Electronics has a license to use WEATHER as the user interface for its new weather-products workstation. Since November, UCARF has received $5,100 of $8,500 in royalties due from Alden. UCARF expects to receive the remaining $3,400 shortly.
Bistatic Doppler Radar Network (BiNet)
BiNet is a radar system that consists of three patented UCAR components (the system, the receiver, and the receiver antenna) which work in combination with a patent held by Josh Wurman (U. of OK). In June 1995, Mr. Wurman was awarded exclusive commercial rights to BiNet for 4 years, including the nonexclusive right to sublicense PIRAQ in a package along with the BiNet patents. In January UCARF received a $2,250 royalty payment from Mr. Wurman for the sale of one BiNet system.
Square-Cone Parachute
UCAR's patented Parachute was originally developed for deployment of lightweight scientific instruments from aircraft, however, it can be modified to handle heavier loads by increasing the size of the square cone configuration. UCARF recently executed a nonexclusive manufacturing license with Vaisala Inc. and received an up-front fee of $500. Vaisala will use the Parachute in products other than the GPS Dropwindsonde.
5.3 WITI Corporation
Weather Information Technologies, Inc. (a WITI Corporation subsidiary) has finished its four year project to develop an operational windshear warning system (OWWS) for the new airport in Hong Kong. In January, the OWWS system successfully completed a six-month warranty period. The system proved to be exceptionally reliable from an ìup-timeî perspective during the warranty period. It is expected that Weather Information Technologies will continue to provide ongoing maintenance support and system tuning over the next few years at a yet-to-be-determined level of effort.
As described in previous reports, WITI Pacific, Ltd (a WITI Corporation subsidiary) continues to assist Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) in raising its flight safety standards to a level compliant with ICAO and FAA requirements. WITI Pacific also submitted a proposal to the CAA to develop a management information system which would make regulatory oversight efforts more effective and efficient.
WITI Corporation is developing high resolution, integrated weather products for the mass market Internet and corporate intranets. WITI Corp has recently produced demonstration products for customers in selected markets and looks forward to further development of this new business in the coming months. In this regard, WITI Corporation recently demonstrated this new capability at the Lotusphere conference in Orlando and not only generated a great deal of interest at the conference, but also received an award from Lotus Notes Advisor, an independent publication, for its innovative product offering.
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