UCAR

Collaboration with our community is fundamental to our mission.

We have opportunities across our organization for scientific and professional visits and we provide a host of resources — developed with input from the community and in collaboration with our colleagues across the world — to support and advance Earth system science research and discovery. 

Scientific + professional visits

  • ACOM Visitor Program: The Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling lab (ACOM) focuses on advancing understanding and predictive capability for atmospheric composition and related processes. Research is organized around air quality prediction and weather-chemistry-climate interactions.
     
  • CISL Visitor Program: The Computational & Information Systems Lab (CISL) invites applications for collaboration in HPC services, research, and education, including computational mathematics, data assimilation, scientific visualization, high-performance networking, data curation, and more.
     
  • Developmental Testbed Center Visitor Program: This program supports visitors to work with the DTC to test new forecasting and verification techniques, models, and model components for numerical weather prediction.
     
  • Early Career Faculty Innovator Program: This program is aimed at career faculty in the social and behavioral sciences with the goal of facilitating co-develop of interdisciplinary and actionable research projects in partnership with scientists and engineers at NSF NCAR. The Innovators Program aims to fund six faculty and one graduate student of each faculty participant for two years.
     
  • EOL Visitor Program: Scientists and engineers collaborate on a variety of projects in the Earth Observing Lab (EOL), which provides leadership in observing facilities and field project support, as well as research and data services needed to advance the scientific understanding of the Earth system.
     
  • HAO Visitor Program: The High Altitude Observatory (HAO) focuses on the study of the coupled Sun-Earth system (the solar atmosphere, the heliosphere, and Earth's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere) through theory, modeling, observations, and instrument development.
     
  • MMM Visitor Program: The Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorology (MMM) lab hosts a variety of national and international visitors for collaboration on topics relevant to the lab's focus on understanding of the meso- and microscale aspects of weather and climate.
     
  • RAL Visitor Program: The Research Applications Lab (RAL) conducts directed research in five areas: aviation, national security (fine-scale weather, turbulence, diffusion), hydrometeorology (hydrology, cloud physics), weather systems and assessment, and numerical weather prediction testing/evaluation.

The C-130

Resources for the community

Broader impacts support: Our UCAR Center for Science Education serves the university community with high-quality products and services to meet broader impacts requirements. This includes events designed to engage the public, creation of exhibits and online resources, development of instructional materials, and more. 

Community models: We host a wide range of open-source models pertaining to the Earth system that are developed with and for the broader community, including the Community Earth System Model (CESM), the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF), the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS), and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), and many more. Learn more. 

Data assimilation: We know that cutting-edge model forecasts require cutting-edge data assimilation techniques. We have several data assimilation projects and activities to support the community and as we push the boundaries of what's possible to predict. These include NSF NCAR's Data Assimilation Research Testbed (DART), the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model Data Assimilation system (WRFDA), and UCAR's Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA).  

Data services: We provide access to a wide array of data, including some in near real time. We also have open-source software tools for analyzing and visualizing data, as well as guidance on the strengths and limitations of different data sets. Learn more about data services at NSF NCAR and UCAR. 

Faculty teaching support: We support university educators in a number of ways, including through the COMET Program, which provides online lessons across a range of Earth system science subjects. Faculty can now more easily navigate the MetEd library and find training that has been grouped together by the most commonly taught meteorology courses. COMET's Translation Resource Center can support your own translation efforts and provides a forum to exchange ideas and resources. The COMET Outreach Program promotes partnerships between forecast offices and universities by providing funding for collaborative research projects that will transfer science into practice and serve the public good. Finally, university's can also request funded visits from NSF NCAR and UCAR staff to support their teaching through the UVisit program. 

Field campaigns: NSF NCAR's Earth Observing Laboratory deploys its observing systems in field projects supported by the National Science Foundation or otherwise conducted by the atmospheric science community. To accomplish this, we employ and train the required staff, assist potential users during project planning and preparation, support the observing programs by operating facilities and instruments, and preserve and control the quality of the collected data for decades. Learn more.

Observational platforms: We provide advanced airborne, ground-based, and even space-based observational facilities and services to the atmospheric and space physics communities. These facilities include surface meteorological instruments, flux measurement systems, ground-based in-situ atmospheric composition samplers, vertical profiling systems, ground-based and airborne remote sensors, research aircraft, solar telescopes, and satellite instruments. Learn more about observational platforms at NSF NCAR and UCAR.

Scientific event management: UCAR's Cooperative Programs for the Advancement in the Earth System Science (CPAESS) convenes over 200 different events each year. The range of services provided include comprehensive event planning and management, financial management, virtual and broadcasting capabilities, website and registration services, and a multitude of other logistical details. We provide the framework to organize both large-scale conferences and gatherings down to tightly-focused small group and committee meetings, with attendees numbering from less than 10 to 1500. Learn more.

Supercomputing resources: The Cheyenne supercomputer is a 5.34-petaflops machine available for university researchers in atmospheric and related sciences. To access these supercomputers, storage systems, and other resources, users must apply for allocations, which NSF NCAR makes available through several facilities. Learn more.