Metrics

The metrics featured below offer qualitative and quantitative measurements and assessments of the productivity, quality, and impacts that NCAR programs and activities have on our research community, our sponsors, and society in general.

Field Programs

Collecting field data is a scientist's stock in trade. Direct observations shed insights on weather, climate, and related Earth-system phenomena. Ranging from a few weeks to several months, field programs (field-based observing campaigns or experiments) ensure successful data collection.

NCAR led or participated in 11 field campaigns in 4 countries and the United States. Locales ranged from the Sierra Madre mountain range in Southern Wyoming to the Eastern Tropical Pacific including Chile, and included more than 261 participants.

Editorships

NCAR staff also serve as publication editors. These positions recognize the appointee's leadership in the field and serve a critical role in developing a given field's future focus.

Forty-nine NCAR staff served in 65 different editorial roles on 51 different publications or journals. Publications included top-tier journals such as Water Resources Research and Astrophysical Journal.

External Committee Service

NCAR staff are called upon to participate in and often lead external scientific, technical, policy, and educational committees. These committees are instrumental to advancing and promoting the work of the scientific and technical community.

This year, 114 NCAR staff served in a multitude of roles on 306 external committees for national and international scientific, education, and governmental organizations, including entities such as the Board of Governors, the U.S. National Committee for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, and the International Land Surface Databank Development Committee. Positions ranged from Co-organizer to Panel Member.  More than 63% served on more than one committee.

Presentations

NCAR Staff give presentations about data, models, theories, hypotheses, reviews, and results around the world to audiences ranging from scientists and engineers to the general public.

More than 93,000 people were in the audience when 257 NCAR staff made more than 1,200 presentations across the country and around world, from New Orleans, Louisiana to Abiko, Japan. Examples range from Susan Bates’ (NESL/CGD) presentation on “Learning about Oceanography” in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to Gokhan Danabasoglu’s “Decadal climate prediction: Where are we?” in La Paz, Mexico.

Posters

NCAR Staff present posters about their research at conferences and workshops.

More than 62,225 people were in the audience when 109 NCAR staff presented more than 193 posters across the country and around world, from Beijing, China to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Examples range from Helen Worden’s (NESL/ACD) poster “Satellite-based estimates of reduced CO and CO2 emissions due to traffic restrictions during the 2008 Beijing Olympics”  at the IGAC-GEIA Workshop in Toulouse, France to Donald Schmit’s (HAO) poster on “Diagnosing the prominence-cavity connection” at theSDO-4/IRIS/Hinode Workshop: Dynamics and energetics of the coupled solar atmosphere," in Monterey, California. 

Colloquia, Symposia, and Tutorials

Smaller, often unilateral events, colloquia, symposia and tutorials focus primarily on education or training. This metric measures entire events that NCAR hosted alone, or co-hosted with other institutions or agencies.

NCAR sponsored 65 colloquia, symposia, and tutorials in Boulder and abroad. Participants per session averaged out to more than 36, for a total audience of more than 2,350 peers and students. Some of the co-hosts include the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, and the Air Force Weather Agency.

Workshops and Conferences

NCAR-hosted or co-hosted workshops and conferences are generally larger, bilateral events convened for the purpose of discussion, consultation and exchange of views and information.

NCAR sponsored 65 workshops and conferences in seven countries and nine U.S. states. We partnered with sponsors from the university community, such as Jackson State University, University of Warsaw, and the University of Michigan, and with government agencies including the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as well as with non-profit partners like the Front Range Consortium for Research Computing. In total, these workshops and conferences reached just over 4,243 participants around the world.

Teaching Appointments

NCAR staff make important contributions through teaching appointments at institutions of higher education in positions ranging from Faculty Affiliate to Professor.

Teaching appointments at institutions of higher education currently number 32. Twenty-five percent of these appointments occur in seven countries around the world; 75% took place in eight U.S. states, including the University of Utah.  The longest term is 19 years.

Graduate Advisors

NCAR staff serve as research advisors for graduate students around the world.

Of the 85 graduate students that have NCAR staff serving as graduate advisors, 31% hail from Colorado institutions; 40% attend schools in 14 other states. The remaining 29% study at schools in 16 countries around the world, including five students from the University of Vienna who are advised by Vanda Grubisic.

Thesis committees

NCAR staff serve as dissertation or thesis committee members for internal and external graduate students.

Eleven Masters students and 73 PhD candidates work with 53 NCAR staff as they pursue their degrees from universities in 21 U.S. states; this includes 34 students from Colorado institutions. Sixteen students come from 11countries, with Swiss students leading the international count at three.

NCAR Student Appointments

Students also enjoy NCAR-based appointments.

In FY12, there were 39 Graduate Student, 15 Graduate Research Assistant and 14 undergraduate Student Assistant appointments. There were also 17  student internships coordinated through the Summer Internships in Parallel Computational Science (SIParCS) program, the EOL Technical Internship Program, and the EOL Undergraduate Program for Engineering Research. These students hail from home institutions ranging from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia to National Central University in Taiwan. NCAR also awards postdoctoral fellowships to talented staff through the Advanced Study Program and other laboratory visitor programs.

Special Appointments

NCAR Affiliate Scientists: Select university and research-community scientists are invited to carry out long-term, highly interactive, collaborative work with UCAR scientists and are appointed as Affiliate Scientists with three-year terms. This appointment is particularly suitable for parties who desire an extended, close-working relationship on scientific problems of mutual interest. Currently, 33 hold appointments including Dr. John Finnigan of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. He is collaborating with NCAR scientists on measuring surface atmosphere exchange from towers and in surface parameterisations in climate, weather and boundary layer models; Dr. Finnigan collaborates with MMM in NCAR Earth Systems Laboratory. 

Emeritus/Emerita: Scientific and Research Engineering staff who have made significant contributions to NCAR through long and distinguished service in senior positions in research may be granted emeritus or emerita status. This designation confers a life-long honorary distinction. Approval of the President and the Board of Trustees is required. Currently the ranks of Emeritus/Emerita number 15 with the recent appointment of eminent HAO scientist Ray Roble who is continuing his research on developing a new model of the global atmospheric electrical circuit.

K-12 Outreach

Staff across NCAR work directly with classes and groups of K-12 students by developing or delivering lectures, conducting tours, and leading or participating in field trips and other educational activities.

Thirty-seven NCAR Staff worked with K-12 students from 33 schools. Activities included mentoring, lectures, tours and field trips reaching 17 different communities. Examples range from participating in the Earth Explorers program by educating and mentoring underrepresented youth, to providing a weather demonstration at Red Hawk Elementary School, to serving as a judge in a science fair. 

Among the highlights: Alexandra Jahn (CGD) served as a facilitator for an online climate change course for K-12 science teachers through the Research Experience for Teachers Institute (RETI) program; Carl Drews (ACD) served as an adult chaperone for lab experiments during a three-day science field trip to Pingree Park for Flagstaff Academy 7th grade students;  and Michelle Harrold (RAL) mentored a SPARK pre-college student, in a program designed to introduce a diverse community of high school students to the world of atmospheric and related sciences.

Awards

Each year a number of NCAR Staff are honored for their work and contributions to the Atmospheric and related sciences.

Twenty-five  staff received special recognition for their work.   Clayton Arendt (EOL) received the CO-LABS Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research.  This award provides an opportunity for the federal labs in Colorado to demonstrate how they are making a difference in the state, at the national level and globally.   Alex Guenther (NESL/ACD) received the Yoram J. Kaufman Award from the American Geophysical Union.  The award is given for broad influence in atmospheric science through exceptional creativity, inspiration of younger scientists, mentoring, international collaborations, and unselfish cooperation in research. Peggy LeMone received the American Meteorological Society’s Joanne Simpson Mentorship Award.  The award recognizes individuals in academia, government, or the private sector, who, over a substantial period of time, have provided outstanding and inspiring mentorship of professional colleagues or students.

Fellowships

A fellowship is typically a special appointment granting support for a term in order to support advanced research or study.

Nine NCAR staff received fellowships in 2012.   Among the highlights: Alexandra Jahn was awarded the National Academies Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship, which is an early career educational and training opportunity.  The goal of the fellowship is to engage its Fellows in the analytical process that informs U.S. science and technology policy.  Fellows develop basic skills essential to working or participating in science policy at the federal, state, or local levels.  Her project involved contributing to several national academy reports on sea ice predictability, the future of climate modeling, and urban meteorology.  

Scientific and Technical Visitor Appointments

Each year students, scientists, engineers, weather forecasters, and other professionals from around the country and world receive special visitor appointments from labs and programs across NCAR to collaborate with scientific, educational, or technical staff; conduct independent research; or participate in and/or oversee a professional project. Many receive financial support for their visits and some visitors temporarily join the NCAR staff.

This year, colleagues visited NCAR 932 times and hailed from 393 institutions, located in 46 different U.S. states and 40 different countries.

Visit Length - Number of Scientific and Technical Visitors in FY12

1 day to 1 week: 235

8 days to 2 weeks:108

>2 weeks to 2 months: 244

>2 months to 6 months: 217

> 6 months to 1 year or more: 128

Total:  932

Scientific and Technical Visitor Types - Headcount in FY12

Visitors on Payroll: 41

NCAR funded Visitors: 342

Externally funded Visitors: 549

Total:  932

Publications in the UCAR Open Sky Institutional Repository

NCAR’s publication records are curated in the UCAR Open Sky Institutional Repository. OpenSky is the open access institutional repository supporting UCAR, NCAR, and UCP, extending free and open access to our scholarship for the benefit of research and education.

OpenSky is operated by the NCAR Library, with the goal of providing free and open access to the scholarship of UCAR, NCAR, and UCP. Founded on the principle that public access to the scholarly record is essential to the advancement of science and society, the vision of OpenSky is to support the broad mission of UCAR to foster science, support its community, and facilitate the transfer of knowledge.

In support of this vision, OpenSky will provide long-term storage, preservation, access to scholarly works and the products of scientific research created by UCAR, NCAR, and UCP authors.

A publication is an academic or technical work of writing containing original research results, reviews of existing results, or scholarship. "Refereed" publications undergo an editorial "blind" or anonymous process of peer review by one or more referees (who are experts in the same field) in order to check that the content of the paper is suitable for publication in the journal. A paper may undergo a series of reviews, edits and re-submissions before finally being accepted or rejected for publication. "Non-refereed" articles have been reviewed by editors or boards before being accepted for publication but have not gone through a formal blind review. Attached are NCAR's refereed lists for the period October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012. Search for recent NCAR publications by author, date, keyword or status please go to the NCAR Publications database.

For excellent library resources please go the NCAR Library Web site.

663 Total Publications (download bibliography)

Refereed: 663
UCAR and Other:  106
UCAR and University:  184
UCAR only:  86
UCAR, University and Other:  287

UCAR Outstanding Publication award for FY12:

Thomas Karl (NESL/ACD), Peter Harley (NESL/ACD), Louisa Emmons (NESL/ACD), Alex Guenther (NESL/ACD), Andrew Turnipseed (NESL/ACD, received the FY12 Outstanding Publication Award for“Efficient atmospheric cleansing of oxidized organic trace gases by vegetation” published in the journal Science, volume 330, pages 816-819, 2010.

This paper shows that deciduous plants absorb far more pollution than previously thought. The research uses observations, gene expression studies, and computer modeling to show that vegetation can play an unexpectedly large role in cleansing the atmosphere.The findings presented came as a surprise and connected separate scientific communities across atmospheric, biological, and chemical science fields.  A unique, diverse group consisting of atmospheric scientists, plant physiologists, and molecular biologists was able to tackle a complex biogeochemical problem and study the impact on the atmosphere.The paper’s scientific significance is already demonstrated by its high ISI citation rate (27 citations in two years).  

For a full list of each metrics topic, contact Helen Moshak, moshak@ucar.edu.