Mission and Perspective

The Research Application Division's central mission is in concert with that of NCAR/UCAR: to conduct significant applied scientific research and to facilitate the transfer of the information, expertise, and technology it develops to the public and private sectors. This mission is rooted in the founding philosophy of Walter O. Roberts, the first Director of NCAR, who originally saw NCAR's mission as "science in service to society." The role of UCAR/NCAR as an integrator is very much at the heart of our work. RAP collaborates with the national community (e.g., federal agencies, national laboratories, universities, and various industries), and also with the international community with projects in places such as Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman this year. The division contributes to the depth of fundamental understanding in atmospheric science and works to develop new sources of support for such research. Through its program of technology transfer, RAP expands the reach of atmospheric science into weather-sensitive human endeavors that are not currently using weather information or are using such information in inefficient ways. Educating potential users of weather information in the "art of the possible" is an important element in securing new investments in research and development for application towards the betterment of society.

Twenty years ago, RAP began as a small effort from within the Atmospheric Technology Division aimed at weather issues involved in aviation safety. Today the division is one of the largest in NCAR with a staff of 150, comprised of approximately 75 scientists, 50 software engineers, 16 managers and administrative staff, and 9 student assistants. Our total expenditures in FY03 were just over $21M, with $12M in modified total direct costs.

Aviation weather still represents the majority of our work, but significant research and development efforts exist in other sectors including: test ranges and other DoD applications, forecast improvements for dissemination to the general public, surface transportation, hydrologic applications, marine weather, and wildland fires.

Within these application areas, our current research emphases are: in-flight icing; snowfall and freezing precipitation; convective storm and rainfall nowcasting and forecasting; atmospheric turbulence; numerical weather prediction; remote sensing; data assimilation; surface hydrology; land-surface modeling; precipitation physics; ceiling and visibility; oceanic weather; and verification methods.

The pursuit of science applications that are truly useful to society means that we must have a strong connectivity between our work and the needs of end users, and so end-user requirements are considered at each step along the development path. Our work tends to be heavily oriented towards real-time operational systems, and this leads to an emphasis on algorithm development, specialized graphical displays, systems engineering, operational demonstrations, and the associated scientific validations as well as user-oriented evaluations. We occasionally deliver turn-key operational systems, and accordingly we strive to maintain a high standard in software engineering process.

Technology transfer associated with the above activities include the development and transfer of decision support systems for surface transportation, the Aviation Digital Data Service for the FAA and NWS, a turbulence warning system for Juneau, Alaska, and four-dimensional weather systems for the U.S. Army. Our work in each of these areas is detailed in the "Major Scientific Achievements" section of the ASR.

Accomplishments in 2003

The Annual Scientific Report presents an opportunity for reflection and consideration of the accomplishments of the Research Applications Division over the past year. Let me summarize a few of them.

Several key milestones were reached in our FAA-sponsored Aviation Weather Research Program. The NCAR Forecast Icing Potential product (FIP), the Graphical Turbulence Guidance product (GTG), and the Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS) were all designated "operational" by the FAA and NWS. This was a critical final step in the technology transfer process. FIP combines information from a numerical weather prediction model and observations to provide a 3D-gridded depiction of the likelihood of icing over the CONUS. GTG provides aviation forecasters, airline dispatchers, and pilots, with accurate, easy-to-understand nowcasts and forecasts of regions in which turbulence is likely to be encountered. ADDS serves as a vehicle for disseminating these and a host of other weather products to the aviation community via the Internet.

As part of our on-going development of a Juneau Airport Wind System, RAP staff conducted a major scientific field program in Juneau, Alaska, this past winter. An Alaska Airlines 737, the Wyoming King Air and the University of Oklahoma's Doppler on Wheels collected data on winds and atmospheric turbulence at and around the airport. That data will play an important role in the development of an operational system designed to detect and warn of wind hazards.

2003 marked the expansion of our work in developing 4-Dimensional Weather Systems (4DWX) for U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command ranges. New sponsors, both within the Department of Defense and, more recently, the Department of Homeland Security, have emerged, and new applications and capabilities are being developed. RAP scientists and engineers have, for example, built a version of the MM5 model called Global Meteorology on Demand (GlobalMOD). This system allows even a non-specialist to launch a limited-area numerical forecast for any region of the globe using a simple graphical user interface (which now resides on wireless hand-held devices as well as desk-top computers). This system has been used for forecasts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in metropolitan-area studies in Washington, D.C. and Oklahoma City aimed at forecasting the dispersion of hazardous materials.

Closer to home, we continue to lead interdivisional activities associated with three NCAR strategic initiatives: Water Cycle Across Scales, the Wildland Fire Research and Development Collaboratory, and Geographic Information Systems. RAP scientists and engineers participate actively in these collaborations, as well as in the Weather and Climate Impact Assessment initiative. We also led the effort, in collaboration with ESIG and COMET, to establish a new USWRP Societal Impacts Program at NCAR. This program, to be launched in 2004 under NOAA and NSF sponsorship, is aimed at understanding the societal benefits of better weather information for end users and policy makers. By bringing together the social science and atmospheric science communities, federal agencies that support weather research, and those who will ultimately benefit from that research, NCAR truly serves as an integrator working in service to society.

- Brant Foote, Division Director

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