NCAR Overview

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NCAR Overview NSF Review of ACD October 24-26,
2001 Tim Killeen NCAR Director
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Presentation Outline

• NCAR Overview
• Some Metrics
• NCAR Strategic Plan
• Budgets
• ACD within NCAR

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NCAR at a Glance

• 41 years 850 Staff 135 Scientists
• 128M budget for FY2001
• 9 divisions and programs
• Research tools, facilities, and visitor
  programs for the NSF and university
• communities

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NCAR Peer-Reviewed Publications
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NCAR Visitors
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Productivity and Citations
NCAR ranks 3rd (behind NASA and NOAA) in total
number of published papers in the Geosciences NCA
R ranks 4th out of 764 institutions in citations
per paper in the field of Engineering NCAR
ranks 9th in overall number of average citations
per high impact geosciences papers (127.4)
Figures based on ISI reports
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NCAR at the Nexus
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Priorities for the Institution

• Developing the human capital
• Expanding the intellectual envelope
• and building new capacities
• Expanding partnerships and creating
• new collaborations
• Priority Areas
• Fundamental Research
• Understanding and Predicting the Earth System
• Advanced Scientific Facilities
• Human Dimensions and Societal Impacts
• Education and Training
• Applications and Technology Transfer

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2001 Strategic Plan
NCAR as an Integrator The integration of
disciplinary knowledge to create
interdisciplinary synthesis and develop new
knowledge The integration of research and
education The integration of different tools
and methods to attack new problems The
integration of different points of view and
personal experiences to create teams.
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Strategic Planning

• Values and First Principles
• Creativity and excellence
• Valuing our People
• Addressing Societal Needs
• Broadening the Intellectual Envelope
• Supporting the Community
• Contributing to Education
• Innovation and Renewal

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Strategic Planning Process

• 1 year, grass roots process
• Bob Harriss Associate Director for Strategic
• Planning
• Scientific staff, management, NSF and UCAR
• Board of Trustees reviewed
• Approved by UCAR Trustees October 8
• Web site with draft plan, initiative abstracts
• and working groups

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UCAR/NCAR
CONTEXT
Mission
Vision
Values
Goals

Solar
Chemistry
Climate
Weather
DISCIPLINARY STRENGTHS
Computing
Society
Observations
Education
TOOLS
Models Theory Instruments Computing
Diverse Workforce

Interdisciplinary Research
Integrating Research and Education
Synthesis of Ideas

INTEGRATING ACTIVITIES
Integrated Research for Applications
Focus for Community Research Programs
Integration of Tools and Methods
INTEGRATIVE RESEARCH
DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
ONGOING PROGRAM
New Integrative Initiatives
INITIATIVES
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Strategic Plan
Projects
Themes
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UCAR Education Outreach
Strategic Plan

• Mission Statement In partnership with the
  university community, UCAR promotes scientific
  literacy and advances all levels of education and
  training in subjects related to the Earths
  atmosphere
• Goals
• Develop infrastructure to support an effective
  coordinated education program
• Support students and professionals from pre-K
  through post graduate
• Foster an informed public through science
  literacy
• Build diversity in the geosciences

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Undergraduates at NCAR
In 2001, NCAR hosted a total of 85 undergraduate
students 35 Student Assistants 34 Student
Visitors 16 SOARS Protégés
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High Performance Simulation Plan Themes

• Provide high performance computational
  capabilities.
• Adopt software engineering practices that promote
  high performance and efficient development of
  models.
• Provide data services and tools to manage and
  condense large data sets.
• Structure the management of major software
  development projects to accommodate
  interdisciplinary team efforts.
• Augment efforts in computer and computational
  science and software engineering in an end-to-end
  simulation environment.
• Investigate, develop, adapt and implement the
  infrastructure
• needed to support and facilitate collaborations
  across
• distributed environments.

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NCAR Facilities
C130 newly refurbished High altitude jet Radars,
lidars, etc.
1 teraflop peak (20) x2 this fiscal year x8 over
next three years Two-thirds peta byte
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The Climate Chemistry Connection
Tropospheric carbon monoxide NASA-TERRA-MOPITT Uni
versity of Toronto And NCAR 15,000 ft Red 450
ppb Blue 50 ppb
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Earth System Models
CCSM June, 2001 Workshop in Breckenridge 260
participants, 34 universities, 51 institutions
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Components Of Terrestrial Biogeoscience
Chemistry CO2, CH4, N2O ozone, aerosols
Climate Temperature, Precipitation, Radiation,
Humidity, Wind
CO2 CH4 N2O VOCs Dust
Heat Moisture Momentum
Minutes-To-Hours
Biogeophysics
Biogeochemistry
Carbon Assimilation
Aero- dynamics
Decomposition
Energy
Water
Mineralization
Microclimate Canopy Physiology
Hydrology
Phenology
Inter- cepted Water
Bud Break
Soil Water
Snow
Days-To-Weeks
Leaf Senescence
Species Composition Ecosystem Structure Nutrient
Availability Water
Gross Primary Production Plant
Respiration Microbial Respiration Nutrient
Availability
Evaporation Transpiration Snow Melt Infiltration R
unoff
Years-To-Centuries
Ecosystems Species Composition Ecosystem Structure
WatershedsSurface Water Subsurface
Water Geomorphology
Disturbance Fires Hurricanes Ice Storms Windthrows
Vegetation Dynamics
Hydrologic Cycle
Gordon Bonan
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National Wildland Fire Research Program

• Provides for a national integrated wildfire RD
  program
• Builds bridges between operational and research
  organizations with focus on the National Fire
  Plan
• Combines modeling,observations, theory, and
  decisionsupport systems

Industry Environmental - Nature
Conservancy- Paper/wood mfr- Insurance companies
Federal EPA NOAA - NWS
- NESDIS - OAR
OFCM NSF
NASA
Universities - DRI -
U of Mont -U of Arizona - Colorado -
SDSMT - CSU - UCSB
NCAR LANL LLNL
State County
Municipal - policy planning
- Air quality - Fire mitigation- Western
Governors Assoc
International Collaboration - Canada-
Australia - France
Land Management Agencies - Fire
Labs - GACCs
- NIFC
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Water Cycle Across Scales
Cloud Systems
Diurnal Cycle of Precipitation
Water Vapor and Convective Initiation
To understand how water vapor, precipitation
and land surface hydrology interact across
scales to define the hydrological cycle, and to
use this information to improve weather
prediction models and climate models
GOAL
International H2O Project (IHOP) May June 2002
Surface Hydrology
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Environmental and Societal Impacts Group
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Weather and Climate Assessment
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Demographic Challenges
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NCAR Scientist I Hires
9 new early career scientist hires
through special funding 4 women, 5 men
Interdisciplinary Focus of planned research,
mapping into NCAR strategic plan solar
magnetism climate assessment,
biogeosciences, advanced data
assimilation, solar coronal magnetic
fields atmospheric observing systems,
weather and society, chemistry and
climate.
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Annual Budget Review

• Relates sources and uses of funds to sectional,
  divisional, center-wide and agency priorities
• Program and budget review of each divisions NSF
  and non-NSF projects.
• Is done on an annual basis early in the fiscal
  year prior to receiving NCARs final operating
  budget from NSF
• Determines divisional annual targets

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Total FY2001 funding 128M
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Future Role of ACD within NCAR

• Balanced program covering lower and upper
  atmosphere chemistry, laboratory kinetics,
  instrumentation, theory, modeling and field
  campaigns.
• Community models
• Partnership with other NCAR/UCAR divisions and
  programs
• Central role in NCAR strategic plan
• Important scientific areas biogeosciences, water
  cycles, urban metabolism, etc.
• Long heritage of leadership and service