Priority 2: Building Capacity for Coping with Weather and Climate Hazards

NCAR scientists work in a variety of ways to help decision makers address weather and climate hazards. Working in partnership with their stakeholder communities, they research, build, and transfer state-of-the-art decision support information, tools and systems. This effort encompasses a broad continuum of activities ranging from conducting workshops to developing operational systems and instruments. Developing greater resilience to weather and climate not only involves improved understanding of atmospheric processes, but better understanding of the decision making process itself and of the importance of better communication of information between atmospheric scientists and decision makers. Developing greater resilience to weather and climate not only involves improved understanding of atmospheric processes, but better understanding of the decision making process itself and of the importance of better communication of information between atmospheric scientists and decision makers. It is clear that the connections between individual decision makers, as well as societies themselves, and the environment must be better understood and appreciated.

As an NSF federally funded research and development laboratory and as stated in our Strategic Plan, NCAR is devoted to applied research and technology transfer. While all of our programs have this responsibility, the most significant effort to support this priority occurs through our Research and Applications Laboratory (RAL). In this section we also report on activities in our Earth Observing Laboratory and the Societal-Environmental Research and Education Laboratory (SERE).

FY06 Accomplishments

A wide variety of aviation weather research and development programs are focused on improving the diagnosis and forecasting of weather hazards that impact the safety, capacity, and efficiency of aviation. The program, primarily funded by the FAA, also receives support from NASA to integrate satellite data into weather products and capabilities created at RAL. Programs sponsored by the Department of Defense are aimed at providing more accurate forecasts of weather at Army test ranges, creating an improved capability for predicting the transport and dispersion of hazardous substances into the atmosphere, devising and implementing a building protection system for the Pentagon, integrating weather into future combat systems, and providing a host of user-friendly decision support tools for decision makers. Researchers have also conducted precipitation enhancement and water resource management studies in Wyoming, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia. These on-going efforts are assessing the impact of both intentional weather modification (i.e., cloud seeding) and inadvertent modification (e.g., industrial pollution) to increase precipitation.

New systems to aid decision makers often require improved observational inputs. In response to the need to better monitor aerosols in an urban environment, EOL scientists and engineers have developed the first eye-safe aerosol lidar (REAL). The new lidar was used in RAL's Pentagon Shield program to detect and track aerosol plumes in the nation's capitol and was also deployed in the T-REX field project. A patent for this world-class technology is pending. EOL also constructed and delivered a wavelength-converting Raman cell to the Army Research Labs (ARL) in Maryland. This cell is uniquely capable of providing high energy pulses at 1.5 microns, thereby enabling eye-safe energy densities at ranges ahead of and beyond the focus. This technology may be used to help identify bomb material or biological agents on surfaces from a safe distance. We also have a number of climate-related research and development efforts in SERE. The Geographic Information Systems program (GIS) promotes and supports the use of GIS as an analysis and infrastructure tool. A major accomplishment in FY06 was the Climate Change Scenarios project which allows users throughout the world to access global data sets and download them in a GIS format, thus facilitating the easy integration of climate predictions and environmental and socioeconomic data. Other tools are being developed to provide customized probabilistic information about future climate scenarios for specific users in specific regions, and to assist researchers in better understanding extreme weather and climate events.

Program Plans

RAL's work to build resilience to weather hazards will continue, with its various programs moving through a life cycle of research, development, and technology transfer on different schedules. A number of new DoD-funded projects will begin, creating new decision support tools and modeling capabilities for the military. A large new program in collaboration with Tel Aviv University will be conducted to upgrade mesoscale modeling capabilities in Israel. A major rainfall enhancement program in Saudi Arabia will also begin in 2007.

In early FY07 EOL staff will visit the Brisbane, Australia, Weather Service to begin training the staff on the use of a dual-wavelength, dual-polarization Doppler radar and assist in the physical setup of the CP-2 radar. CP-2 will be available for both operational and research activities in Australia.

Climate prediction tools will continue to be refined. A collaborative effort between SERE and NOAA researchers, the Sector Applications Research Program, will produce a report, "Megacities on the Coast", on the current state of understanding related to climate issues in coastal regions.