Thank you for agreeing to participate in the NCAR planning process. The discussions at the UCAR members meeting will be the first step towards creation of an updated NCAR strategic plan. We are very appreciative for your willingness to provide your perspectives on scientific challenges and opportunities facing NCAR and the broader atmospheric and related science community.

Our last plan, which was completed in 2009, was organized around a set of imperatives and frontiers. Imperatives are areas of activity that we consider essential for NCAR at any budget level, such as provision of observational and computational services and the conduct of research that underpins the development of predictive earth system models. Frontiers are new directions; emerging science opportunities and community service needs that NCAR should begin to address. We again intend to use these concepts to organize our new plan. We do not expect to make wholesale changes to our list of imperatives because we see their lifetime as much longer than 5 years, but do expect substantial updating of the priorities within each imperative area. Frontiers are more fluid. We expect that some of the frontiers in our last plan will become imperative priorities in our new plan, and that some new frontiers will be added.

At this stage in our process, we feel that a classic brainstorming session is in order. We are not yet seeking to establish new priorities or to forge a consensus, although ideas with strong support from large numbers of participants will carry substantial weight as we develop our plans. Our top-level aim for these sessions is rather to identify:

1. Key emerging opportunities in science and service
2. Significant challenges that demand responses
3. Exciting potential extensions of current NCAR work
4. Entirely new activities or areas of work that NCAR should consider

Breakout session chairs will have nine minutes to report on session findings in plenary, so when you report on your discussions, we would like to hear about the top 2-3 items in each of the four categories above. We of course welcome submission of a longer list of findings if your session results in such.

There is no perfect way to organize these kinds of discussions. We have tried to define broad topics for the sessions that mix science, facilities and services together but that are also traceable to one or more of our current imperative areas. We recognize that there is some degree of overlap among the different topics.

Our view is that breakout session chairs should not be overly concerned with enforcing boundaries in your discussions. As we have discussed with you verbally, we do think a short framing paper from the co-chairs would serve to stimulate discussion by putting some ideas on the table. We do want you to focus on the general topic, but you should feel free to take advantage of the opinions and expertise of your session participants in order to develop the best advice you can give us.

We do believe that it could be helpful to consider some criteria as you think about activities for NCAR, and offer the following for your consideration:

• Scientific excitement and difficulty: NCAR should be working on difficult problems at the cutting edge of science.
• Service to the scientific community: NCAR activities should benefit the larger scientific community by developing and providing services, facilities, and methods.
• Societal relevance: NCAR should undertake research that is challenging and useful. Potential societal benefits are an important consideration in our planning.
• Center appropriateness: NCAR should be working on large-scale, long duration projects, often in partnership with university scientists.

• What do you think is the most pressing scientific question facing our field and why? Comments from Break Out Registration form (PDF)

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Predictive Science for the Earth System and Solar-Terrestrial phenomena

Trans-disciplinary Science Addressing the Human Dimension

Future Directions in Community Modeling: Science, Computer Technology, and Management

Observational and Experimental Research

Integrating Research, Education, Diversity, and Engagement

Early-Career Science Forum