September 19, 1997
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President's Report for October 1997 Board of Trustees meeting |
Ladies and Gentlemen:
This annual report to you covers some of the highlights of UCAR Corporate activities since the UCAR Members meeting in October 1996. Bob Serafin and Jack Fellows provide summaries of NCAR and UCAR Office of Programs (UOP) activities elsewhere in this report.
1.0 Summary
Highlights of UCAR corporate during the past year include working with NSF and NCAR on the NSF reviews of NCAR and UCAR; recruiting and hiring two new members of UCAR's senior management team (Jack Fellows and Katy Schmoll), completing the purchase of UCAR North; publishing with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) the third quadrennial "awareness document;" working on the sensitive computer procurement for the NCAR Climate Simulation Laboratory (CSL); seeking additional support for the SOARS program; analyzing the scientific results and preparing for the future of the GPS/MET program; and developing answers to "frequently asked questions" about UCAR, NCAR and UOP.
1.1 NSF Review of NCAR and proposal for renewal of the Cooperative Agreement with NSF for the operation and management of NCAR
During 1996, the third year of the present cooperative agreement, NSF and the SPEC completed their reviews of the NCAR divisions and these reviews were very positive. NSF summarized a number of issues raised by these reviews and UCAR and NCAR responded formally in a document dated December 3, 1996 to the NSF.
In 1997 NSF and SPEC completed the "4th year" review of UCAR and NCAR management. At NSF's request we prepared an overview document summarizing the management structure of UCAR and NCAR and the achievements of NCAR as a national center. This document, NCAR-Science, Facilities, and Service was submitted to the NSF in late January 1997. (This document was reviewed very positively by reviewers and provides an excellent summary of NCAR and its recent accomplishments). NSF provided this document to the review panel, chaired by Charles Kennel of UCLA1. This panel met in Boulder on April 1-3 to conduct a site visit of UCAR and NCAR, focusing on management issues. A separate panel also convened in Boulder at this time to review the NCAR Advanced Study Program (ASP). Harry Orville chaired the ASP panel2. UCAR SPEC observers for the overall review panel were Franco Einaudi (NASA Goddard) and Joyce Penner (U. Michigan). Eric Barron (Penn State) and William Cotton (Colorado State University) were SPEC observers for the ASP review.
1Other members of the review panel are Dave Burridge (ECMWF), Jay Davis (LLNL), Timothy Killeen (U. Michigan), Carol Roberts (former Deputy Director of NSF Polar Programs), Ronald Prinn (MIT) sJames Rasmussen (NOAA), and Harry Orville (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology).
2Other members of the ASP review panel are
Gene Takle (Iowa State), Dana Hartly (Georgia Tech), John
Wyngaard (Penn State) and Barbara Mihalas (Forepoint
LLC).
The 4th-year reviews were very positive; for example, the Kennel panel summarized their review
"The National Center for Atmospheric Research serves the nation with distinction. By means of well-chosen programs of research and infrastructure provision, NCAR simultaneously leads and supports the national atmospheric science community in an increasingly broad and interdisciplinary program."
The essential role of the universities, through UCAR management and operation of NCAR, was recognized by the panel:
"Particularly impressive in the degree to which NCAR coordinates with the atmospheric science community as represented by UCAR. The UCAR role, serving as the presence of the large outer community, represents a unique accomplishment in stewardship and management of a federally funded scientific and technological institution."
The Kennel panel made several valuable recommendations; these included the need for improved internal communications, the need to develop a UCAR-wide information technology strategy, the need for continued management attention to demographic and diversity issues, and the need to continue to encourage cross-divisional activities. UCAR and NCAR management are addressing this issues vigorously.
Following the 4th-year review, we began preparing a proposal to NSF for the next five-year cooperative agreement with NSF. This proposal will be submitted to the NSF in September and reviewed by a panel appointed by NSF in November. The goal is to have the new Cooperative Agreement approved by early next summer in time for the start of the new agreement on October 1, 1998.
1.2 Welcome to Jack Fellows and Katy Schmoll
I am extremely pleased to introduce new Vice Presidents of UCAR, Ms. Kathryn (Katy) Schmoll and Dr. Jack Fellows. Following a national search by a search committee chaired by Lyn Hutton (Vice President and Treasurer, Dartmouth College)3 I identified two exceptionally qualified candidates, Jack Fellows and Katy Schmoll.
3Other members of the search committee were Peter Gilman (NCAR Senior Scientist), Rebecca Oliva (UCAR Information Technolgy), Linda Martinson (Head Master and President, Galloway School), Pete Peterson (Deputy Director, Scientific Computing Division, NCAR) and Robert Street (Professor at Stanford University and former Chariman of UCAR Board of Trustees).
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I selected Katy for the position of Vice President for Finance and Administration. Katy has been the Comptroller of the Environmental Protection Agency since 1993. Prior to that, she was Assistant Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Science And Applications at NASA. She received her Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from Indiana University in 1975 and graduated from the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School in 1992. |
 In a reorganization, I appointed Jack Fellows to be Vice President for Corporate Affairs and also the Director of the UCAR Office of Programs. Since 1984 Jack has been Branch Chief, Executive Office of the President of the United States, Office of Management and Budget, Science and Space Program Branch, Washington, D.C. He has a Ph.D. in civil engineering (hydrology) from the University of Maryland. |
The opportunity for the reorganization and the hiring of two exceptional people into senior UCAR leadership positions was made possible following the identification and interview of the two outstanding candidates by the search committee, Bill Pennell's decision to step down as Director of UOP and return to the Department of Energy, and Vice President Harriet Barker's plans to retire within the next two years (during this interim period Harriet will continue as UCAR Vice President reporting to me). The appointments were thoroughly discussed with the UCAR Board of Trustees Executive Committee and strongly endorsed by them. A major objective in making these appointments is to build a new senior management team for UCAR that will lead the organization well into the next century.
Katy and Jack began their new positions in late August.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bill Pennell for his many contributions to UCAR during his tenure as Director of UOP and wish him well in the future.
1.3 And Farewell to Bill Rawson
On September 12, Bill Rawson will officially retire from UCAR after nearly 28 years of service. Bill started to work at NCAR in December 1960, barely two years after the Mesa Lab opened. After serving as a budget and planning specialist and heading the NCAR Budget and Planning Office, Bill became Director of the old NCAR Finance and Administration Division of NCAR. In February 1984, both he and Harriet Barker were appointed as UCAR vice presidents.
Bill's accomplishments are many and important. To cite
just a few examples, under Bill's leadership, UCAR acquired
the first production model Cray supercomputer in 1976 and
subsequent computers of greater power by convincing the
Boulder County to issue tax-exempt bonds on behalf of
UCAR
- bought Foothills Lab in 1990, saving millions of
dollars in construction costs and shortening the time for
NCAR staff consolidation
- launched the UCAR Foundation
- purchased the building known as "UCAR North" (now Foothills Lab-4)
As the first-ever UCAR vice president emeritus, Bill will continue to work with UCAR and the UCAR Foundation on a pro-bono basis "to see if the technology commercialization effort will pay for itself. It's going to be kind of fun to focus on one thing rather than five thousand."
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On behalf of the entire UCAR staff and the community, I thank Bill very much for his many contributions to the atmospheric sciences and wish him the best for the future. |
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1.4 Purchase of UCAR North
On January 8, 1997, we completed the $4.6M purchase of UCAR North. (Subsequently renamed Foothills Lab Building 4.) With almost 50,000 usable square feet, FL-4 is roughly one-fifth the size of Buildings 1-3 of Foothill Lab. FL-4 houses about 120 staff from UOP as well as NCAR Visual Communications, UCAR Communications, Project Skymath and WITI (leased space from UCAR). This purchase will save NCAR and UOP around $1M in the next 5 years and $15M over 25 years in indirect costs (overhead).
1.5 GPS/MET
I have worked with the interdisciplinary and multi-organizational (UOP, NCAR, University of Arizona, and the Russian Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Moscow) GPS/MET team, headed by Mike Exner in UNAVCO. The scientific aspects of the program are going extremely well, and a major paper "Analysis and Validation of GPS/MET Data in the Neutral Atmosphere" has been accepted for publication in JGR-Atmospheres.
A major advancement in GPS/MET data processing was achieved in February when near real-time (within 24 hours) soundings were obtained globally and put on the web for use in FASTEX (Fronts and Atlantic Storm Track Experiment). One could select GPS/MET soundings of temperature and water vapor on the web and compare them with NCEP data.
Despite the promise shown by GPS/MET so far, we have been unable to obtain the funding required to keep the satellite operating beyond April 1, 1997, and on this date the data was shut off ending almost two years of continuous data collection. This is unfortunate because a record of data useful for monitoring climate change had been started and has now ended for lack of funds.
However, on the very positive side, the National Science Council of Taiwan has shown great interest in supporting the next stage of the GPS/MET experiment--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. Tentatively dubbed "COSMIC," for Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate, the program is in the early planning stages. The program will involve the UCAR GPS/MET team, NCAR, universities in the U.S. and Taiwan, JPL, and industries in the U.S. and Taiwan.
1.6 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) about UCAR
The President's Council put in considerable effort to provide answers to "frequently asked questions" about UCAR management, NCAR and UOP. These questions address sensitive and complex issues, as we discovered in preparing our answers. They were published in abbreviated form in UCAR Staff Notes. The Trustees suggested that the FAQs would be of interest to the wider UCAR university community, and so the complete version is available on the web.
1.7 Jackson State National Advisory Panel
At the request of President James Lyons of Jackson State University, UCAR has appointed a National Advisory Panel to advise Lyons and the Meteorology Program at Jackson State on the future of the program. I appointed Bill Bonner (Chairman), Edna Comedy (UCAR) Franco Einaudi (NASA), Louis Uccellini (NWS), and Ken Crawford (University of Oklahoma) to this committee. I participated in the first meeting of the panel at Jackson State on February 27-28, 1997 and was extremely impressed by the quality and enthusiasm of the students.
2.0 Corporate Affairs
Corporate Affairs responsibilities over the past year have been: 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. A recent activity, led by Corporate Affairs, has been the 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.
ACT was formally kicked off at the IAMAS symposium in Melbourne this July, first at a plenary in which the principals all expressed their personal and institutional support (the people named above were joined in this evening session by John Zillman, in his capacity as President of the WMO and Rick Anthes). The next day UCAR convened a meeting of its International Affiliates. Although sparsely attended, the meeting was lively and interactive. We see an important role for the International Affiliates in ACT, somewhat akin to the role the 130 Unidata universities play in that program.
A prototype ACT Web site will be demonstrated at the October meeting, and Roland List (who is one of U. Toronto's representatives) will be at the meeting for further discussions about this exciting new concept. Members representatives will also have the chance to meet Bethany Hobson, Corporate Affairs's newest staff member. Bethany, a Masters' level meteorology student from CSU and programmer, will be responsible for UCAR's Web activities, including ACT.
2.1 Communications
The Walter Orr Roberts Weather Trail was dedicated at the July Trustee meeting, and at a public ceremony the same week. Since then the trail has proved to be popular with visitors and with both local and national media. This is the first such trail in North America and was conceived and implemented by UCAR staff in communications and facility support, with funds from the Friends of UCAR and in-kind contributions by the City of Boulder.
The Natural Features of the NCAR Mesa, previously published in 1968, is being updated and reissued. This publication, also popular with visitors to the Mesa discusses geology and biology of the immediate site and the region.
EPA has awarded UCAR a $100,000 grant to prepare materials that will be provided to weather broadcasters for their use in tying daily weather programming to broader climate issues. We will issue both video footage and background materials for the broadcasters to use.
The current El Niño is generating not only changes in the world's general circulation, but intense interest from the media. We have had calls from most major newspapers and television networks, from local television stations to the international press. Madeleine Nash of Time Magazine and Mark Roberts of National Public Radio both attended Mickey Glantz' week-long workshop on El Niño and filed stories. Crews from Fox Television, NBC's Today Show, and the BBC have all visited NCAR in recent weeks to cover the El Niño story.
IMAX is coming to the High Altitude Observatory to shoot footage for a new film called "Solar Max."
The third Awareness Document was published last fall by UCAR and AMS. It has received positive reactions and has just been reprinted, with some updated impacts figures. Copies will be available at the Members meeting.
The UCAR Quarterly is now mailed to almost twice as many people as a year ago. Distribution has been extended to broader community representation, such as people at universities beyond the UCAR membership who have contacted us in the past for information on UCAR programs.
2.2 Education
Neal Lane's visit early in 1997 was a highlight for many educational and research institutions in Colorado. Lane visited university, state government and business leaders during his day and a half stay. He spent two hours hearing from teachers and students about NCAR's Project LEARN: Atmospheric Science Explorers, an NSF funded teacher enhancement project with CU's Science Discovery program. The students (from 4th, 5th and 8th grades) gave demonstrations of atmospheric phenomena in which Lane participated, and had the chance to ask him questions over a box lunch ("how did you become a scientist", "what does the word 'science' mean?" The latter turned into an amusing moment, as no one in the room, including Lane, knew the answer!) A presentation by Janel Cobb, SOARS protege and doctoral student at CSU, was a part of this session.
By then end of October, SkyMath will have finalized its pilot program with production of a six-week middle school mathematics module that uses the science and language of patterns to study temperature. The program has designed a home page that contains all necessary information for teachers to adopt this activity into their classrooms, including the 200-page module freely available for downloading from the web page. Two assessment documents have been prepared that demonstrate the effectiveness of the module in the learning of significant mathematics for all levels of student abilities. The student-used portion of the module has been translated into Spanish (also available from the web site). Student and teacher enthusiasm for the module is strong, including the portions that use the Internet for communication and data-gathering. UCAR is now in the process of working with Dale Seymour Publishers who have expressed a desire to be the distributors of the printed form of the module. SkyMath has been welcomed by NASA and several NASA-sponsored workshops have been given on the use of the module. Expanding the SkyMath materials to include Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) activities are under development.
Because the funding for the followon module was declined by NSF, support possibilities from NASA/MTPE and the NSA (National Security Administration) are being pursued.
LEARN: Atmospheric Science Explorers, directed by Carol McLaren and Dr. Margaret LeMone, has completed its first year of funding from the NSF Teacher Enhancement Program. LEARN (Laboratory Experience in Atmospheric Research at NCAR) is a four-year teacher enhancement program focused on the atmospheric sciences for teachers of 5th through 8th grades from rural schools in Colorado in collaboration with Science Discovery, a K-12 educational outreach program of the University of Colorado at Boulder. During the first year, teachers from seven rural regions in Colorado (Bayfield, Grand Junction, Lamar, Montrose, San Luis Valley, Springfield, and Sterling) participated in the first of three three-week summer institutes at NCAR and in service training in their districts. To date 26 NCAR and UOP scientists have participated in the project presenting scientific content and providing laboratory internship opportunities for teachers to experience laboratory research themselves. Teachers who have participated in the project indicate that their knowledge of the content has increased significantly.
2.3 Institutional Advancement
2.3.1 Development Office
The Boulder County Healthy Communities Initiative (BCHCI) has: (1) developed the county-wide network of neighborhoods to mobilize citizens to identify their community's challenges and solve problems locally, (2) disseminated mini-grants to Lyons, Longmont, Nederland and Lafayette to enhance the participation of youth in community service projects, (3) submitted a proposal to the Knight Foundation to develop a county-wide integrated, collaborative plan to reduce youth violence and improve opportunities for youth, (5) secured funding from PorterCare Hospital-Avista ($50,000), Boulder County Commissioners ($8,000), City of Boulder ($6,000) in support of administrative infrastructure, (6) held a public forum on community health indicators with leadership from a new Project Director hired on a grant from The Colorado Trust, (7) sponsored a forum entitled "Civility - What's at Stake" featuring the Honorable David Skaggs, (8) submitted a proposal to the EPA to develop a video and interactive CD-ROM illustrating how decisions made today can create sustainable scenarios in the future, (9) developed task forces to determine concepts for public forums on regional growth and the interrelationships between science, community health, and spirituality, and (10) participated actively in the state-wide network of 27 Healthy Communities Initiatives to hold a conference in Esters Park, Colorado, on September 5-6.
The Colorado Industrial Ecology Project has finally taken off. We have received $35,000 in seed funding from two private foundations, subcontracted with Colorado State University to create an inventory of input/output streams, and signed Coors Brewing Company as the first participant. Discussions are under way with other potential participants including Hewlett Packard, Conoco, the City of Loveland and Commerce City. We will know soon about collaboration with the Northeast Metropolitan Pollution Prevention Alliance which may facilitate our recruiting a number of companies in the Commerce City area.
Grants and Development activities have been given a boost with Linda Sitea, former director of the Grants Office for Connecticut College, accepting our offer to fill a vacancy in that office. Linda's main goal is to assist UCAR scientists and staff members with the development and writing of grant proposals to public and private prospects. In addition, she will publish a newsletter, Search and Research, that will be made available to the UCAR community including Member Universities. The newsletter, patterned after a similar successful one Linda did at Connecticut, will describe new grant opportunities in order to broaden our potential prospect base.
Grant proposals now being developed in collaboration with UCAR, NCAR and UOP PI's are for the following: four PAGE projects, an interdisciplinary project directed at NSF's Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence program, a project with Howard University for an interdisciplinary graduate student activity, a project to involve the Models of Institutional Excellence faculty and students in research work with several laboratories including NCAR, and several industrial ecology proposals to increase the scope of that program.
UCAR's one and a half staff in the Boulder office work closely with Lewis Burke Associates in Washington DC to carry out the activities described here. Of particular focus this past year have been the NWS, FAA, the computer procurement, advocating for increased funding for NSF, NASA, NOAA, and DOE, and supporting the Solar-B satellite program in NASA. Lewis-Burke regularly monitors, analyzes and reports on executive branch action, on climate change policy issues, relevant hearings, proposed budgets and bills, and this information provides much of the material that is reported in UCAR's Action Alerts andWashington Updates.
Briefings. We have begun a series of Hill briefings on timely subjects to respond to the interests expressed by staffers and Members for better and more science information. In addition to approximately 500 staffers, the mailing list for these briefings includes key agency and association staff. We will e-mail briefing notices to all UCAR Member Representatives and UCAR Member Universities government affairs officers and will encourage them to attend whenever they happen to be in Washington at the time of a briefing.
The first briefing occurred in July to plaudits. Roger Pielke, Jr. of ESIG spoke on both the House and Senate side on "Disasters, Death, and Destruction Related to U.S. Weather: What are the Facts?" The second briefing will be on September 17 and will include Stan Changnon (Director, Changnon Climatologists), Frank Nutter (President, Reinsurance Association of America), Robert Sheets (Meteorological Consultant), and Pielke. Their topic is "Extreme Weather and the Insurance Industry."
Climate change, of great interest because of the upcoming Kyoto conference, will be the focus of two more briefings in November and December. Additional topics under consideration are sun spots, flooding, and the data collecting tools of the atmospheric sciences.
Several Washington Updates were distributed by e-mail to all UCAR Member Representatives with information on Appropriations for FY 1998. In past years, Washington Updates was published on a regular schedule; it will now be released as soon as information relevant to the UCAR community becomes available. Following a recent discussion with university government affairs representatives at a NASULGC meeting, all Washington Updates and Action Alerts will be forwarded to UCAR Member University government affairs officers so that they can assist with any action that member reps are being asked to take.
Six Action Alerts were sent asking the UCAR community to support the highest possible appropriations budget numbers for science. As well as a general call to action, those UCAR members with a senator or congressperson on the Appropriations Committee were targeted to communicate with those specific representatives. Those persons in the community who have communicated with Members of Congress and copied us include:
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Ernest Agee (Purdue) |
Conway Leovy (Univ. of Washington) |
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Blaine Blad (Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln) |
Douglas Lilly (Univ. of Oklahoma - retired) |
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Richard Clark (Millersville Univ. of Pennsylvania) |
Frank Lin (Saint Louis Univ.) |
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Kenneth Crawford (Univ. of Oklahoma) |
Jim Miller (Rutgers) |
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Robert Fleagle (Univ. of Washington) |
Jenny Moody (Univ. of Virginia) |
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Benjamin Herman (Univ. of Arizona) |
Gary Ostrander (Johns Hopkins Univ.) |
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Peter Hobbs (Univ. of Washington) |
R.G. Roper (Georgia Inst. of Tech.) |
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Al Hoffman (Millersville) |
Robert Ross (Millersville - Dean of School of Science & Math) |
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Donald Johnson (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) |
Glenn Shaw (Univ. of Alaska) |
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Richard Johnson (Colorado State Univ.) |
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Jordan Konisky (Rice Univ.) |
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We thank these members for their efforts.
A packet of transparencies was developed in response to a discussion held at last October's members' meeting. This packet will be demonstrated at this year's meeting and will be posted on the WEB for use by member reps as they meet with the public (such as Rotary, chambers of commerce, schools) and with members of their states' Washington delegations. Government affairs officers at some of the UCAR Member Universities have offered to help arrange presentations for UCAR Member Reps and will be contacted about the availability of the packet.
UCAR joined with many other scientific institutions to support the effort of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents to increase federal funding for science.
3.0 Computer Procurement for the Climate Simulation Laboratory (CSL)
3.1 Brief Review of History
In October 1994 UCAR began a process to procure supercomputing equipment to enhance the NCAR CSL. The equipment will support the nation's research community in basic research studies of the climate system. In March 1995 UCAR issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to 14 vendors, 12 American and two foreign. Four of the 14 vendors responded, and three proposals were in the competitive range.
Following a careful evaluation of the bids from the three vendors, UCAR announced on May 20, 1996 that it was entering into contract negotiation with Federal Computing Corporation (FCC). FCC is a U.S. company that integrates systems of computers and related equipment. HNSX Supercomputers Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of NEC, Tokyo.
In May 1996 the issue of sale of the NEC computers at below-market value (an illegal act known as dumping) was raised by CRAY Research, Inc. (CRI), several Members of Congress, and the Department of Commerce (DOC). On May 20, the DOC, in an unusual move, wrote a letter to NSF saying that the bid appeared to be substantially below cost and that the estimated dumping margins, or tariffs, would be substantial.
On July 29 CRI filed a petition with the DOC alleging that Japanese vector supercomputers were being offered at below-market value in the United States and that those imports were injuring the U.S. industry. On August 19 the DOC announced that it had initiated an antidumping investigation in response to the petition.
Cray's petition to the DOC was filed simultaneously with the International Trade Commission (ITC). On September 12, 1996 the ITC made a preliminary determination that there was the possibility that the industry was being injured or threatened with injury by imports of vector supercomputers from Japan. Because the ITC found possible injury, the DOC was allowed to continue its investigation.
3.2 Recent events
On 31 March, 1997, the DOC issued a preliminary finding that NEC was guilty of dumping by bidding at 454% below cost. This finding was based only on data that CRI supplied DOC; NEC refused to provide data for the inquiry, arguing that the DOC had provided them no chance of a fair hearing. The DOC confirmed its preliminary finding in its final determination on August 20, 1997.
Because of the DOC investigation, the NSF, in a letter to UCAR dated 28 August, 1997, declined UCAR's request for approval of the FCC/NEC award. UCAR will now cancel the procurement and make alternative plans for its computing.
Although the DOC has ruled that NEC offered the computers at below cost, to confirm that dumping officially occurred the ITC must rule that CRI was actually injured, or threatened with injury. Bill Buzbee testified before an ITC hearing on August 27 that CRI had lost the bid because it could not demonstrate that it had working computers that met the requirements given in the RFP. The ITC is expected to make its final ruling in early October. If the ITC agrees with CRI, antidumping duties will be imposed on NEC imports at the rates set by the DOC.
While the legal proceedings were underway, in November 1996 UCAR extended the present lease agreement with CRI by 18 months, replacing the CRAY Y-MP8 with a CRAY C-90. The C-90 has 256 million words of memory and 16 processors, twice as many as its predecessor. It can produce 5 billion operations per second and provides a factor of three to four increase in speed over the Y-MP8. The C-90 is dedicated to the Climate Simulation Laboratory (CSL). To better serve the rest of the community, shortly after the arrival of the C-90, NCAR acquired a third CRAY J-9 computer. The new J-9 has a billion words of random access memory, more than any other NCAR computer, and will allow users to run much larger jobs than previously.
Although the loss of scientific opportunity represented by recent events is significant and disappointing, NCAR continues to provide powerful computing systems to the community and remains dedicated to improving its services in the future. In an August 31 message to NCAR/SCD staff, Bill Buzbee summarized the situation as follows:
"As you probably know, last week the Dept. of Commerce officially assigned a dumping margin of 454% for NEC supercomputers. On the same day, the US Court of Int'l Trade rejected NEC's claim that Commerce had prejudged the case. As a result of these decisions and consistent with OMB regulations that all procurements be conducted to provide, to the maximum extent possible, open and free competition, NSF has informed UCAR that it cannot approve the award for the SX-4.
"As you may also recall, as soon as the dumping investigation began last September, SCD began preparing for the possibility that the SX-4 would never be available. Thus within the past year we have installed the C90, the J9se, and may soon install a T94. Most important, we used our HPCC funds to acquire the Hewlett Packard SPP so that we can evaluate distributed, shared memory architecture and expedite transition to it. That process will intensify and dominate much of our work in FY98. Further, this technology looks promising. Just last week, staff in Steve Hammond's section achieved over 10 Gflops with a Spectral Element Atmospheric Model running on a 128 processor HP system in Dallas. SGI has reported over 5 Gflops for MM5 running on a 64 processor Origin.
"Overall, SCD is in good shape and well positioned to move ahead. For example, our ensemble of J9s, C9, and probable T94 gives us compute capability comparable to any other US supercomputer center. The T3D and SPP give us highly parallel capability. Our MSS is the envy of most centers. Users routinely comment on the quality of our documentation and service."
4.0 Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS)
4.1 Background
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.
Interest in SOARS is increasing. Thirty-nine universities have committed in writing to participate. Earlier in the year NASA-Goddard and NOAA-OGP joined the NSF in sponsoring SOARS. And, on August 26, 1997 DOE announced that it would provide an additional $497,500 to fund four additional SOARS students over the remaining three years of our current NSF funding. These additional sponsors now make it possible to support the full 18-student program originally envisioned.
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(As of August 20, 1997) | |
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University of Alabama at Huntsville |
University of Missouri, Columbia |
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University of Alaska at Fairbanks |
University of Nebraska, Lincoln |
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University of Arizona |
University of Nevada, Reno |
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University of California at Irvine |
New Mexico Tech |
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University of California at Los Angeles |
North Carolina State University |
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University of California at San Diego |
University of Oklahoma |
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University of Colorado at Boulder |
Old Dominion University |
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Colorado State University |
Oregon State University |
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Cornell University |
Pennsylvania State University |
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Dartmouth College |
Purdue University |
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Drexel University |
University of Rhode Island |
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Florida State University |
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey |
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Georgia Institute of Technology |
Stanford University |
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University of Hawaii |
University of Texas |
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
University of Utah |
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University of Iowa |
University of Washington |
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Iowa State University |
Washington State University |
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University of Miami |
University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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University of Michigan |
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute |
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Michigan Technological University |
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4.2 Summer 1997 experience
Between June 2 and August 8, 17 students from colleges and universities across the country and Puerto Rico participated in the ten week summer mentorship component of the SOARS program. The table lists the names of these students, their mentors and their scientific projects.
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Chris Castro |
"The Effect of Climate Change on Corn Yield in the Susquehanna River Basin of Pennsylvania." |
Linda Mearns, ESIG and Warren Washington, CGD |
Steve Sadler |
Marie Boyko |
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Janel Cobb |
"Vertical Profiles of Large Aerosol Particles During the Aerosol Characterization Experiments." |
Darrel Baumgardner, ATD and Sonia Kreindenweis, C.S.U.
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Edna Comedy |
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Jazmin Diaz-Lopez |
"Effects of Global Environmental Change and Human Health: Skin Cancer Associated with UV-B Radiation Exposure." |
Regina Cannon, ASP Alan Townsend, C.U. and Tom Windham/UCAR |
Cheryl Cristanelli
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Marie Boyko |
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Carl Etsitty |
"Virus Survival in Sludge Amended Soils: Detection by ICC-PCR, Direct PCR, and Conventional Cell Culture." |
Lee Klinger, ACD |
Tom Windham |
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Quindi Franco |
"Making Climate Change Policy in the Executive Branch." |
Roger Pielke, Jr./ESIG |
Tom Windham |
Marie Boyko
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Preston Heard |
"Lightning Tropospheric Chemistry" |
Jim Dye, MMM and Vernon Morris, Howard University |
Tom Windham |
Marie Boyko |
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Lacey Holland |
"Forecast Verification by a Research Aircraft." |
Barbara Brown, RAP and Marcia Politovich, RAP |
Susan Montgomery-Hodge |
Carol Park |
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Karen Mozealous |
"The Influence of Ozone Depletion on Atmospheric Tides." |
Maura Hagan, HAO |
Jocelyn Brown |
Lucy Warner |
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Shirley Murillo |
"Land Surface Modeling at the Local Scale." |
David Yates,ASP |
Delaine Orendorff |
Bob Henson |
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Sharon Perez-Suarez |
"Analysis of an Ocean General Circulation Model for the Campanian (80 Ma): Comparison to Proxies for Ocean Temperatures from the Geologic Record." |
Robert De-Conto, CGD and Bette Otto-Bliesner, CGD |
Teresa Rivas |
Marie Boyko |
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Paneen Petersen |
"Arctic Tundra and the Global Carbon Cycle." |
Benjamin Felzer, CGD and Starley Thompson, CGD |
Nancy Norris |
Marie Boyko |
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Darnell Powers |
"Effective Cloud Properties on Cloud Drop Acidity." |
Mary Barth, MMM/ACD and Wojciech Grabowski,MMM |
Bob Roesch |
Pamela Witter |
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Jennifer Price |
"Ozone and Carbon Dioxide Observations During the Cooperative Atmospheric Surface Exchange Study (CASES) for Summer 1997."
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Tony Delany, ATD |
Pat Baker |
Jo Hansen
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Stephanie Rivale |
"Analysis of Role of UV Light in Photochemical Smog Formation." |
Sasha Madronich, ACD |
Pat Baker
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Juli Rew |
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Kiesha Stevens |
"A Comparison of Vapor Pressure Estimates from MTCLIM3 and CLIMSIM." |
Nan Rosenbloom, CGD, |
Sandra Henry and Tom Windham |
Marie Boyko |
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Rachel Vincent |
"Sensitivity Analysis of a Tropospheric Chemistry Model Using the Adjoint Method." |
Peter Hess, ACD and Tomislava Vukicevic, CGD |
Julie Arblaster and Harriet Barker |
Marie Boyko |
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Jennifer Zabel |
"Biogenic Non-Methane Hydrocarbon Emissions: One Piece of a Whole." |
Alex Guenther, ACD |
Susan Friberg |
Rene Munoz |
This was the second summer for the program and for 13 proteges returning from last year's inaugural class. Thirteen of the 17 member class completed the summer program at UCAR, NCAR and UOP while four remained at their university campus or away in the field, conducting research in preparation for completion of their graduate degrees. Three of these proteges are on schedule to receive master's degrees by summer '98, one completed a masters degree in summer '96 and is now working on her Ph.D. in atmospheric science.
The proteges presented their research at a colloquium held in August. The presentations received high marks from several NCAR senior scientists including Guy Brasseur, Al Cooper, Jim Dye, Sasha Madronich, and Warren Washington. Al Cooper wrote, "I heard most of the SOARS science presentations and was greatly impressed by their quality. There was a good sense of community and mutual support among the proteges during the presentations. Some of the second-year proteges made remarkable progress in scientific understanding and in confidence since last year."
In addition to the research mentorship, proteges participated in academic and career counseling, a community workshop series, an eight week science writing workshop, colloquia by myself, Al Cooper, Patricia Taylor, Warren Washington, and John Cortinas (National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, and advisor to SOARS protege Lacey Holland, (University of Oklahoma). The writing workshop conducted by Marie Boyko, focused on the general theme of persuasion in scientific writing. Students were paired with science writing mentors to assist with the writing of their research papers. A compilation of abstracts from these research papers will be available this fall. In addition, proteges were paired with community mentors. Along with conveying technical knowledge, the mentors helped proteges make a smooth transition into the UCAR and Boulder communities. Mentors participated in an orientation program which included a three hour workshop on the mentor-protege relationship.
This winter, SOARS program director Tom Windham will give a talk on the SOARS program at the AMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix. I hope that you will attend. Finally, in late August the Boulder County Community Action Programs awarded Tom Windham this year's multicultural award in the science category.
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.
5.1 Intellectual Property Management Program
To date the Intellectual Property Management Program has logged 240 technology disclosures for intellectual property protection, evaluation, and potential commercialization. Since October 1996, five patents have been granted: 1) Mass Storage System for File-Systems by Basil Irwin, et al. (SCD); 2) Radar Acquisition System by Mitchell Randall, et al. (ATD); 3) Gas Concentration and Injection System for Chromatographic Analysis of Organic Trace Gases by Detlev Helmig (ACD); 4) Facility for Preparing and Deploying Sounding Devices by Dean K. Lauritsen, et al. (ATD); and 5) Microburst Detection System by Dave Albo, et al. (RAP).
In addition, two patent applications were filed: 1) Frozen Precipitation Accumulation Alert System by Roy Rasmussen, et al. and 2) Winter Precipitation Measuring System by Roy Rasmussen, et al. (RAP).
5.2 Technology Commercialization Program
The UCAR Foundation continues to focus on the commercialization of 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. A considerable amount of new airport planning in the Pacific Rim has resulted in a concomitant increase in LLWAS interest on the part of the providers of airport weather observation systems. Singapore and Korea are two locales where airport expansion RFP's have specifically requested bids for NCAR Phase III or Phase III-like LLWAS systems.
The UCAR Foundation has four (4) 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. WITI has also agreed to license LLWAS for its use of that technology in Hong Kong. Additionally, an evaluation license is in place with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, which could become operational within the next year should the Australian government determine that an LLWAS capability is an important concern.
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 customers include the U.S. Air Force, NOAA, NASA, and foreign governments and weather services. As predicted, sales of the LD2 dropwindsonde have declined as it is replaced in the market by the new GPS-version of the dropwindsonde. Although few new sales are expected, Radian's license was extended through 1999 to facilitate Radian's support to existing customer orders.
GPS Dropwindsonde
As noted above, the new GPS-version of the dropwindsonde is replacing the LD2. The GPS dropwindsonde was exclusively licensed last fall to Vaisala, Inc. The license included a $25,000 up-front payment and a running royalty of 7.5% for each GPS dropwindsonde that is sold. It is anticipated that royalties will be generated within FY98.
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 non-exclusive basis to a Boulder firm, Applied Technologies, Inc. (ATI). ATI has manufactured several units for use in ongoing NCAR/NASA projects. Otherwise, ATI sales of PIRAQ have been limited. An enhanced version (VIRAQ) is intended for use in larger data systems and is essentially PIRAQ in a different operating system and computer bus.
Relaxed Eddy Accumulator (REA)
The REA is also manufactured by Applied Technologies (ATI), and incorporates two UCAR patents non-exclusively licensed to ATI: the Conditional Sampling Technique for Flux Measurement and the Air Sampling Pump System. Under the license, UCAR received a $3,000.00 license fee and will receive a 10% royalty for each REA that is sold. Assembly of the first REA was a slow process since the system underwent additional design and development work by ATI. The first system was finally finished and delivered to the University of Wyoming earlier this year. The University of Alaska and two other ATI customers have also expressed an interest in the REA, but none have yet placed orders.
Thunderstorm Identification, Tracking, and Nowcasting (TITAN)
TITAN is a software-based system for the tracking and short-term forecasting of thunderstorms. It is one component of RAP's AutoNowcasting package. Based on RAP's recommendation, as it could no longer provide technical support for the software, UCAR's management has made this software available to the educational and research community free of charge via the world wide web. In view of the foregoing, we anticipate very limited, if any, opportunity to commercialize this software.
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. We have commenced negotiations with Alden to license a newer version of the software.
Miscellaneous
Other technologies for which marketing activity has occurred, though no licenses have yet resulted, include:
- NCAR Graphics (SCD)
- GARP (COMET Program)
- Wind Profiler Algorithms (RAP)
- Intelligent Ambient Air Sampler (ATD)
- Weather Support to De-Icing Decision Making (RAP)
- GENLN 3 software (ACD)
The UCAR Foundation is presently being modified to reflect the most up-to-date information on the commercial licensing opportunities available for UCAR technologies.
5.3 Education & Training Applications Group
Effective October 1, 1997, COMET training modules will no longer be sold by the UCAR Foundation. COMET is phasing out of producing CD-type modules and moving to internet distribution. Consequently, any residual sales of existing titles will be fulfilled out of the COMET Program inventory. The Foundation will continue to work with the COMET Program to identify other potentially commercial products or services resulting from COMET's activities.
5.4 WITI Corporation
Weather Information Technologies, Inc. (a WITI Corporation subsidiary) has nearly finished its four year project to develop an operational windshear warning system (OWWS) for the new airport in Hong Kong. During the spring and summer, the OWWS system successfully completed Site Acceptance and Reliability Acceptance Tests at the new Hong Kong Airport. The system proved to be exceptionally reliable from an "up-time" perspective during these tests. The system is now in the middle of a six-month 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 has recently produced demonstration products for customers in selected markets and looks forward to further development of this new business in the coming months.
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