Goal 3, Priority 3: Improving Public Awareness and Understanding
This strategic priority and the previous one (enhancing formal science education) are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they overlap in significant ways. Many NCAR conferences, colloquia, and workshops are advertised and open to the public. These events enhance public awareness and understanding of the atmospheric sciences by building human and institutional capacity to deal with climate issues.
FY2007 Accomplishments
Click to enlarge.The Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is now available for purchase from the Cambridge University Press.
Perhaps most notable of the FY2007 accomplishments under this priority is wide public recognition of climate change as an issue, and the publication of the AR4 report. In addition to the CCSM, NCAR and our colleagues played significant roles in generating this report. Our researchers served as convening lead authors, lead authors, and contributing authors. They reviewed various chapters of the report and contributed to the Technical Summary and Summary for Policy Makers for the IPCC’s Working Groups 1 and 2. NCAR and community research featured prominently throughout the report, which garnered a huge amount of media attention, and also led NCAR researchers providing expert testimony to U.S. Congressional committees, as well as briefings to individual politicians.
Outside of the AR4 excitement, NCAR continued its many efforts to raise public awareness of scientific questions and techniques. For example, CISL provided training workshops in NCL (NCAR Command Language), our open source visualization software, running four workshops in FY2007: one at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center (APCC) in Bussan, South Korea, and three at NCAR.
Many public visitors to NCAR come through our websites. With support from NCAR and NSF Division of Atmospheric Sciences, new development efforts to the Windows to the Universe Web site focused on the International Polar Year (IPY), including a new “Earth’s Polar Regions” section that provides information about the Earth’s poles, polar weather, and its association with Earth’s climate. Additionally, “Postcards from the Field,” which provide reports from field studies in near-real time (in English and Spanish) was expanded in FY2007.
Click to enlarge.The new NCAR website promotes NCAR's mission and identity.
During 2007, NCAR and its laboratories developed a new website devoted to promoting its mission, the work of its scientists, its many facilities and models, collaboration and career opportunities, and the daily offering of scientific events, seminars, and outreach activities - to name just a cross-section of the content. The NCAR website navigates seamlessly with its laboratory websites, and allows visitors to 'drill down' for greater levels of detail within a related family of websites.
NCAR support also enabled development of a new Citizen Science emphasis in EO during 2007. With emphasis on youth and families, the public is encouraged to observe aspects of their environment and share their results with others around the country to gain a better understanding of a scientific problem while becoming more engaged in the natural world. The past year saw development of both Measure Your World (mentioned above) and the Great World Wide Star Count (GWWSC). This latter campaign, which began October 1, 2007, engages the global public in observations of the night sky, and builds their understanding of the impact of the built environment on star visibility.
FY2008 Plans for Strategic Priority 3
- CISL staff expect to hear the outcome of an internal proposal to offer one free yearly NCL workshop at qualifying UCAR member universities, starting in FY2008. CISL staff also plan to offer two to three local workshops, and have been invited to present one at the Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences in Istanbul, Turkey. Research will be conducted to determine the feasibility of offering similar training courses for PyNGL and PyNIO; this would most likely involve a collaborative effort with experts from the University of Colorado who already offer a Python scientific training course. It is important to note that our community contribution in this area is not simply training on the NCL tool: it is fundamental training in the important practice of Earth system data analysis.
- CCB’s Climate Affairs program continues to expand and be included in educational activities around the world. Attempts to serve as a catalyst to the development of climate, water, and/or weather programs will be continued during FY2008 and FY2009. Also, as a first step in building interest in the ECNU’s Coastal Affairs Center, ECNU and NCAR will co-sponsor a conference in July 2008, bringing undergraduates from universities around the world together to share discussions, hear keynote speeches, and attend symposia on the science, technology, and education issues that surround climate, water, and weather.
- During 2008, EO will continue its emphasis on informal science education, leveraging the content and audience of the Windows to the Universe site, and expanding its Citizen Science efforts. IPY Web content, as well as climate and global change topics will be expanded, and scientist use of the Postcards from the Field interface will be promoted, so as to share more effectively the excitement of work in the field with the public.
Related Lab Annual Report Sections:
Goal 3, Priority 3