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National Center for Atmospheric Research

 
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National Center for Atmospheric Research
 
 
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a non-governmental U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
-based institute whose stated mission is "exploring and understanding our atmosphere and its interactions with the Sun, the oceans, the biosphere, and human society."

Operations
The institute houses researchers focusing on issues such as air quality, weather complexities, and climate change.






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National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a non-governmental U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
-based institute whose stated mission is "exploring and understanding our atmosphere and its interactions with the Sun, the oceans, the biosphere, and human society."

Operations


The institute houses researchers focusing on issues such as air quality, weather complexities, and climate change. NCAR has several of the world's fastest modern supercomputer
Supercomputer

A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputers introduced in the 1960s were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation , and led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to form his own company, Cray Research....
s for modeling complex weather systems and the effects of global warming
Effects of global warming

The effects of global warming on the natural environment and civilization are numerous and varied.Scenarios studied by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict that global warming will continue and get worse much faster than was expected even in their last report....
. Complex software models such as Atmosphere-Ocean Global Climate Model
Global climate model

A General Circulation Model is a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean and based on the Navier-Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ....
s (AOGCMs) are used.

NCAR's Kevin E. Trenberth
Kevin E. Trenberth

Kevin E. Trenberth is head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability program....
 is one of the lead authors for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body tasked to risk management of climate change caused by human activity....
's 2007 Fourth Assessment Report
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report

Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , is the fourth in a series of such reports....
.

Architecture


NCAR's flagship Mesa Laboratory is located in the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County, Colorado, Colorado, in the United States....
, in a dramatic complex of buildings designed by architect I. M. Pei
I. M. Pei

Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known by his initials I. M. Pei, is a Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese American American architect, known as the last master of high modernist architecture....
 on grounds laid out by Dan Kiley
Dan Kiley

Daniel Urban Kiley was a noted American Landscape architecture in the modernist style....
. The site is maintained as a nature preserve.

Visitors


NCAR's visitor center offers free guided tours and self-guided audio tours of an antique Cray supercomputer and other computers, plus hands-on exhibits demonstrating weather phenomena and Earth's changing climate.

See also

  • University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
    University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

    The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1960 by research institutions with doctoral programs in the atmospheric science and related sciences....
  • Climate model
    Climate model

    Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate....
  • Attribution of recent climate change
    Attribution of recent climate change

    Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientific method mechanisms responsible for relatively recent changes observed in the Earth's climate....
  • Earth Simulator
    Earth Simulator

    The Earth Simulator was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004. The system was developed for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, and Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in 1997 for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid ear...
  • HadCM3
    HadCM3

    HadCM3 is a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model developed at the Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom. It was one of the major models used in the IPCC IPCC Third Assessment Report in 2001....
     - explanation of an AOGCM
  • EdGCM
    EdGCM

    is a global climate model that has been ported for use on desktop computers and integrated with a relational database, a graphical user interface, and scientific visualization utllities, all of which are aimed at helping improve the quality of teaching and learning of climatology....
     - a global climate model
    Global climate model

    A General Circulation Model is a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean and based on the Navier-Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ....
     for students
  • CCCma
    CCCma

    CCCma is a division of the Climate Research Branch of the Meteorological Service of Canada of Environment Canada based out of the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia....
  • Edward Martell
    Edward Martell

    For the British politician of the same name, see Edward Martell Edward A. Martell was a radiochemistry for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado....
     - NCAR's former radiochemist
  • ESMF
    ESMF

    The ESMF is open source software for building climate, numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, and other Earth science software applications....


External links