Science Serving Society

Both the National Science Foundation and NCAR focus on the service of science in benefit of society as part of their overall mission. Most of the stories highlighted in this annual report have societal benefit integrated into the research effort, but an ongoing focus for NCAR and our community is to bring in a greater diversity of voices to the geosciences field. Another emphasis is on effectively communicating our science, scientific results, and how these lessons learned might affect the public. The following set of stories provides a snap shot of some of the efforts by NCAR and community scientists to achieve this end.

Portable, automated weather stations--lightweight and powered by solar panels--have been used to monitor and study microbursts, sudden changes of wind speed or direction that are extremely hazardous to aircraft). These record meteorological information such as wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, pressure, and rainfall. By concentrating high technology observing systems in a small area, current conditions can be constantly monitored, allowing vastly improved forecasts and severe weather warnings.