About NCAR and the 2007 Annual Report
The National Science Foundation funds the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to advance basic research in the United States in atmospheric and related sciences in support of the university community. As a federally funded research and development center, NCAR is able to sustain a long-term commitment to this scientific enterprise. This basic research also feeds into NCAR’s other strategic goals, allowing us to leverage our own and the community’s scientific findings to improve the modeling, computing, and observational facilities we provide, and also transfer the results of this work to the public and private sector.
Introduction
As can be seen in the pages that follow, NCAR’s research and support capabilities include a wide swathe of research areas–from atmospheric chemistry, meteorology, solar physics, and solar-terrestrial interactions, to climate change and the related societal impacts of climate and severe weather events. And, because Earth and atmospheric science are inextricably linked, our scientists also focus on areas such as biogeochemistry, the hydrologic cycle, and geophysical turbulence, and use applied mathematics and statistical analysis to provide enhanced understanding of the phenomena under study. We conduct our research in close collaboration with university partners, local, state and federal agencies, with international partners, and private sector sponsors. Our goal is to make our research accessible and widely available.
To best meet the needs of atmospheric and Earth science researchers, NCAR created five laboratories, each of which has a focus designed specifically to serve the wider community. Our labs are also intended to address NSF’s strategic goals of Discovery, Learning, Infrastructure, and Stewardship. With frequent input from NSF, NCAR is advancing discovery, innovation and education beyond the frontiers of current knowledge, and empowering future generations in science and engineering.
NCAR’s labs include:
- The Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL), which provides the community with high-performance computers, high-speed networks, a world-class data archiving and storage facility, research data sets, state-of-the-art knowledge environments and visualization technologies, advanced mathematical tools, and a staff of professionals dedicated to advancing Earth system science across broad fronts.
- The Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL), which develops and deploys observing facilities, and provides data services that our research community needs to make the observations that are essential to broadening our understanding of the world we live in.
- The Earth and Sun Systems Laboratory (ESSL) research program addresses some of the complex scientific questions directly related to major environmental challenges the world is facing. ESSL’s research efforts–for example, building climate, weather, and other atmospheric and Earth system models–are pursued both in partnership with and on behalf of the wider scientific community.
- NCAR’s Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) conducts directed research that contributes to the depth of fundamental scientific understanding, fosters the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth, and supports technology transfer that expands the reach of atmospheric science.
- The Societal-Environmental Research and Education (SERE) Laboratory promotes inter- and multi-disciplinary research activities, engages in human and institutional capacity building, and research related to climate-environment-societal interactions. SERE also develops and sustains partnerships between NCAR scientists and our colleagues in universities and other institutions.
Both our work and this report are built around addressing our Strategic Plan, NCAR as an Integrator, Innovator and Community Builder, which outlines our five Strategic Goals and the priorities addressed to achieve each goal. NCAR's Strategic Goals are to:
- Improve understanding of the atmosphere, the Earth system, and the Sun
- Increase societal resilience to weather, climate, and other atmospheric hazards
- Cultivate a scientifically literate and engaged citizenry, and a diverse and creative workforce
- Provide robust, accessible, and innovative information services and tools, and
- Provide world-class ground, airborne, and space-borne observational facilities and services.
In the following sections we report on the progress our laboratories have made in fiscal year 2007 (FY2007) toward attaining our scientific goal and priorities, and provide an overview of our plans for the coming year.