ATD Mission and Goals

The basic mission of the Atmospheric Technology Division is to provide unique, multi-user observing facilities and data services to the atmospheric and related sciences. Accordingly, the specific goals of ATD are:

  • To provide high-quality, centrally administered observing facilities and associated data support services for use in research programs by the atmospheric and oceanic sciences communities.

  • To continually improve these facilities and services, and to develop next-generation facilities as community requirements dictate, by means of strong internal development programs.

    User Community

    In FY 96, ATD provided observing support for nine field programs. A listing of supported field programs is provided in each of the succeeding sections describing the activities of ATD's Facility organizations. In summary, three of the nine field programs supported were for university investigators (including the very large, multi-facility ACE-1 program), five involved both NCAR and university scientists, and one was for a non-NSF government agency.

    During the year ATD responded to 110 individual requests for field data from non-NCAR researchers at a large number of institutions, as well as to many additional requests from NCAR/UCAR scientists. In addition, a total of 132 different institutions requested and used ATD applications software. These latter requests are in addition to the usual large number from NCAR/UCAR users.

    ATD also worked in FY 96 on a number of sensor and observing system developments funded by various government agencies and other organizations, in addition to those supported by NSF. Many of these development projects involved collaborative efforts with technical staff from universities and other research organizations.

    Introduction Next