The metrics featured below offer qualitative and quantitative measurements and assessments of the productivity, quality, and impacts that NCAR staff, programs and activities have on our research community, sponsors, and society in general for data reported in the Metrics Database, iVantage HRIS system and OpenSky Database as of October 30, 2017 for fiscal year 2017 (October 1, 2016 - September 30, 2017). Staff continue to update their entries and expand their contributions throughout the year so visit the Metrics Database for the most current data. (2017 METRICS AS OF OCTOBER 30, 2017). Date stamp 10/30/17.
Each year, events are hosted by labs, divisions, and programs. These include colloquia, conferences, symposia, tutorials, and workshops.
Date Range | Total Hosted | Workshops | Tutorials | Symposia | Conferences | Colloquia |
FY17 | 129 | 26 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 84 |
In FY17, a total of 129 events were hosted: 26 workshops, 11 tutorials, three symposia, five conferences, and 84 colloquia with an average audience of 58 colleagues per event and estimated total audience of 7,538. Event co-sponsors groups included the German Climate Computing Center, EUropean Facility for Airborne Research, the U.S. Department of Energy and universities including the University of Chicago, and Michigan State University.
NCAR’s geosciences research facilities, instrumentation and field support services support field campaigns around the globe.
Date Range | Total Campaigns | Institutions | PIs | Undergraduate Students | Graduate Students |
FY17 | 10 | 100 | 57 | 22 | 41 |
In FY17, NCAR participated in 10 field campaigns ranging in duration from 28 to 837 operational field days. A total of 100 institutions, including 35 UCAR member institutions participated in these campaigns. The projects involved 57 investigators, 22 undergraduate students, and 41 graduate students.
Campaign Acronym | Campaign Full Name |
Rosetta Stone | Rosetta Stone |
ARISTO 2017 | Airborne Research Instrumentation Testing Opportunity |
WE-CAN Test Flights | Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol, Absorption and Nitrogen |
SNOWIE | Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds - the Idaho Experiment |
Perdigao | The Perdigao Field Experiment |
Eclipse 2017 | Eclipse 2017 |
VERTEX | Vertical Enhanced Mixing |
SPIFFY | Seasonal Particles in Forest Flux studY |
SHOUT - HRR | Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology - Hurricane Rapid Response |
Eclipse Test | Eclipse 2017 Test Flights |
One example is the VERTical Enhanced MiXing (VERTEX) project, an NSF sponsored field campaign focused on understanding how lower boundary airflow is altered by the presence of wind turbines.To help test this, EOL’s Integrated Surface Flux System (ISFS) team installed 15 surface flux towers downwind of a turbine in Delaware’s Great Marsh Preserve just outside the resort town of Lewes, Delaware. During operations, there were at least two EOL staff in Delaware at one time whose primary objective was to ensure the highest quality data was being ingested and equipment was running at all times.
Each year, NCAR facilities host tours organized for a specific organization or group. This year, NCAR hosted a total of 69 tours, between the four locations.
NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer
The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer Center (NWSC) is based in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Center provides advanced computing services to scientists studying a broad range of disciplines, including weather, climate, oceanography, air pollution, space weather, computational science, energy production, and carbon sequestration. The Center is open to the public for self-guided tours, field trips for school groups, and non-school group special tours. In FY17, the Center received 1551 walk-in public visitors, and averaged 130 visitors per month.
Date Range | Hosted Tours | K-12 Groups | Science/Technical Tours | College/University Groups | Political/Sponsor Groups | Peer Center |
FY17 | 28 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 1 |
NWSC hosted 28 tours in FY17, for groups ranging in size from 2 to 48 people. Seven tours were by K-12 groups, including the STEM Academy of Info Tech and various local high school visits. Nine groups took science- or technical-related tours, including a group from the Coop GIS of Laramie County. There were eight college or university groups, ranging from the Front Range Community College to the Malaysia & Myanmar Young Leader Delegation from Southeast Asia. There were three tours by political/sponsor groups, including the Wyoming Federation of Republican Women and the National Science Foundation. There was also a tour by the San Diego Supercomputing Center, a peer institution.
NCAR Research Aviation Facility at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport
Date Range | Total Hosted Tours | K-12 Groups | Science/Technical Tours | College/University Groups | Political/Sponsor Groups |
FY17 | 23 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 2 |
The Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport hosted a total of 23 tours in FY17. Eleven tours were by college and university groups, including the University of Northern Colorado and Colorado State University. Two tours were by political and sponsor groups, including the City & County of Broomfield and CO-LABS Inc. . There were also two tours provided to a K-12 group from the Center of Science Education. This year there were eight science/technical tours provided to groups ranging from Innovative Research and the Korean Radio Research RRA.
The High Altitude Observatory
Date Range | Total Hosted Tours | K-12 Groups | Science/Technical Tours | College/University Group | Political/Sponsor Group |
FY17 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
The High Altitude Observatory hosted a total of 7tours in FY18. One tour was by a college or university from the University of Hawai’i. There was one tour for Ouray High School from the K-12 group. There were also four science and technical tours provided to NICS scientists and LASP Scientists.
Individual Staff Metrics
NCAR staff members serve as research advisors and thesis committee members for graduate students around the world.
Date Range | Total Students | International Service | U.S. Service |
FY17 | 226 | 27% | 73% |
In 2017, NCAR staff served as graduate advisors or committee members for 226 graduate students. Twenty-two are working on their master’s degrees and 204 are working on their PhD. 73% hail from U.S. universities; 27% study at schools in 22 countries around the world, including a PhD student from the University of Lille who was advised by Geoff Tyndall, a PhD student from Oklahoma State University advised by Rebecca Morss, and a Master’s student from Western Washington University advised by Carl Schmitt.
NCAR staff members 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.
Date Range | Total Editorships | Different Publications/Journals |
FY17 | 88 | 97 |
88 NCAR staff served in editorial roles for 97 different publications or journals. Tammy Weckwerth served as the Subject Matter Editor for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society while Dan Marsh served as a Guest Editor for the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Publications included top-tier journals such as the AMS Journal of Hydrometeorology and the Geoscience Data Journal.
Every year a significant number of NCAR Staff are honored for their scientific excellence and community contributions to the Atmospheric and related sciences.
Date Range | Total External Awards |
FY17 | 36 |
Peggy LeMone (MMM), Rich Rotunno, (MMM), Scott Ellis (EOL), Mary Barth, (ACOM) and Bob Sharman (RAL) were named American Meteorology Society Fellows. The AMS Fellow honor celebrates outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years.
Martyn Clark (RAL) was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This special honor recognizes scientific eminence in the Earth and space sciences. It acknowledges Fellows for their remarkable contributions to their research fields, exceptional knowledge, and visionary leadership. Only 0.1% of AGU membership receives this recognition in any given year.
A fellowship is typically a special appointment granting support for a term in order to support advanced research or study.
Date Range | Total Fellowships |
FY17 | 8 |
Eight UCAR staff received fellowships in 2017. Among the highlights: Sophie Hou (CISL) was awarded the Earth Science Information Partners Fellowship offered by the Foundation for Earth Science and James Done (MMM) was awarded the Willis Research Fellow Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Willis Research Network.
Staff across NCAR work directly with classes and groups of K-12 students to develop or deliver lectures, conduct tours, and lead or participate in field trips and other educational activities.
Date Range | Total K-12 Outreach | Schools/Events | Communities Reached |
FY17 | 43 | 54 | 23 |
Forty-three NCAR Staff worked with K-12 students from 54 schools or other school based organizations. Activities included hosting a math olympiad at Blue Mountain Elementary School, helping teachers, mentoring, and field trips reaching 23 different communities. Examples range volunteering at Bear Creek Elementary School’s 3rd grade robotics program in Boulder, Colorado to being a science fair judge at the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF).
Among the highlights: Bill Mahoney (RAL) supports the Snow Plow Painting Art Project involving more than 200 kids, on an annual basis (since 2003). This project brings awareness of the City of Louisville’s winter snow and ice control operations and the safety hazards associated with winter conditions by bringing together school students, city operations officials, and weather experts. Art classes at each of the participating schools design artwork consistent with the designated theme for the year and the artwork is then painted on the snow plows. Seven schools in Louisville participate in this project; Rebecca Bucholz (ACOM) was a Grand Awards Judge and Senior Division Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Captain for 500 students at the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair in Ft. Collins, Colorado; and David Gagne participated in the National Arctic Climate Game Jam in Boulder, Colorado.
NCAR staff participate in mentoring colleagues and students.
Date Range | Total Mentoring |
FY17 | 108 |
During this year, 108 staff members mentored mentees both inside and outside of NCAR. Mary Barth (ACOM) was a science mentor at both the University of Polytechnic Marche and the University of Rhode Island. Andreas Prein (MMM) was a science mentor to two students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; John Dennis (CISL) was a computer and electrical engineering mentor to students from the University of Colorado and Colorado State University while Matthias Rempel (HAO) worked with students from the University of Glasgow and an ASP Post Doc at NCAR.
NCAR Staff give presentations about data, models, theories, hypotheses, reviews, and results around the world in talks and posters to audiences ranging from scientists and engineers to the general public.
Date Range | Audience Totals | Total Poster Session | NCAR Staff - Poster Presentations |
FY17 | 1000+ | 242 | 170+ |
Many thousands of people were in the audience when 242 NCAR staff presented over 1,000 talks globally, from Monterey, California to Seoul, South Korea. Examples range from Joe Tribbia’s (CGD)) talk on “Is the Atmosphere less predictable than we think?” at the Mathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach in Oberwolfach, Germany, to Pedro Jimenez Munoz’s (RAL) talk “A three dimensional PBL parameterization to improve wind simulations over complex terrain” at the AMS Eighth Conference on Weather, Climate, Water, and the New Energy Economy in Seattle, Washington.
One Hundred and three NCAR staff made more than 170 poster presentations globally, from Bozeman, Montana to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Examples include Lulin Xue’s (RAL) poster "High resolution regional climate simulation of the Hawaiian Islands – Validation of the historical run from 2002 to 2012” in San Francisco, California at the AGU Annual Meeting and Art Richmond’s (HAO) poster “What Drives the Electrodynamics of the Low-Latitude Evening Ionosphere?” in Tokyo, Japan at the JpGU/AGU Joint Meeting.
Date Range | Total Teaching Appointments | Countries | U.S. States |
FY17 | 37 | 5 | 12 |
NCAR staff members make important contributions through teaching appointments at institutions of higher education in different positions ranging from Graduate Faculty to Professor.
Teaching appointments at institutions of higher education currently number 37. Seven percent of these appointments occur in 5 countries around the world; 93% took place in 12 U.S. states. The longest term is 32 years, by Grant Branstator (CGD) who is an Adjunct Professor at Iowa State University. The class sizes range from 5 to 90 students.
NCAR staff teach classes and offer training in workshops, tutorials, and colloquia to colleagues and students ranging from model users, to scholars, to fellow researchers.
Date Range | UCAR Staff Members | Workshops/ Tutorials/ Colloquia | Classes | Countries | U.S. States |
FY17 | 76 | 90 | 562 | 6 | 15 |
During this year, 76 staff members taught at a total of 90 workshops, tutorials, and colloquia. In all, 562 individual classes were taught, with class sizes ranging from one to 125 people. Nine percent of these events occurred in 6 countries around the world including Italy and South Korea; 91% took place in fifteen U.S. states, including Maryland and Wisconsin. Examples range from Michael Wiltbergers' (HAO) appointment as Dean to the “CISM Space Weather Summer School” in Boulder, Colorado to Gokhan Danabaso’s (CGD) lecturing at the ICTP School on Ocean Climate Modeling: Physical and Biogeochemical Dynamics of Semi-Enclosed Seas in Ankara, Turkey.
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.
Date Range | Total External Committees | NCAR Staff Served | Service on more than one committee |
FY17 | 529 | 183 | 63% |
This year, 183 NCAR staff served in a multitude of roles on 529 external committees (an average of 2.9 committees per participating staff member) for national and international scientific, education, and governmental organizations, including entities such as the Water Research Foundation, the Western Education and Research Collaboration and the Research Council of Norway. More than 63% served on more than one committee.
NCAR staff take leaves to visit other institutions for two weeks or more for intellectual growth, professional development, collaboration with research community peers, community support, teaching, or sabbatical. Examples of work include teaching courses or workshops, lecturing, giving tutorials, working with graduate students on dissertation-focused research, student mentoring, collaborative research, and participating in the host institution's outreach to community colleges, minority-serving institutions, and high schools.
Date Range | NCAR Staff Members | Institutions |
FY17 | 10 | 10 |
This year, 10 NCAR staff members took leaves at 10 different institutions, ranging from the University of Hawai’i to the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center. Among the highlights: Stephen Yeager visited and collaborated with a senior fellow at the University of Reading to conduct collaborative research and Wojciech Grabowski (MMM), a Senior Scientist Section Head, visited the University of Warsaw for a 1-year collaborative leave to teach at the university.
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 (see list). This appointment is particularly suitable for parties who desire an extended, close-working relationship on scientific problems of mutual interest. Currently, 44 scientists hold appointments including Dr. Kevin Repasky of Montana State University. Dr. Repasky is collaborating with scientists in the Earth Observing Laboratory(EOL) on developing a deployable version of a low-cost water vapor differential absorption lidar (WV DIAL).
NCAR Affiliate Scientist | Home Institution |
Dr. Elliot Atlas | University of Miami |
Dr. Bernard Aumont | Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systemes Atmospherieques (LISA) |
Dr. Ed Balistreri | Colorado School of Mines |
Dr. Dale Barker | United Kingdom Meteorological Office |
Dr. Alan Blyth | University of Leeds |
Prof. Lance Bosart | State University of New York Albany |
Dr. Natalia Calvo | Universidad Complutense de Madrid |
Dr. Guido Cervone | Pennsylvania State University |
Dr. Paul Charbonneau | University of Montreal |
Dr. Shuyi Chen | University of Miami |
Prof. Philip Chilson | University of Oklahoma |
Prof. Cathy Clerbaux | CNRS |
Dr. Enrique Curchitser | Rutgers University |
Dr. Ineke de Moortel | University of St. Andrews |
Dr. Leo J. Donner | NOAA GFDL |
Dr. Veronika Eyring | German Aerospace Center |
Dr. Jerome Fast | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
Dr. Michael Ferrari | aWhere |
Dr. Paul Field | Met Office |
Dr. Silvano Fineschi | Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino |
Dr. John Finnigan | CSIRO, Australia |
Viggo Hansteen | University of Oslo |
Dr. Song-You Hong | Yonsei University |
Dr. Joseph Huba | Naval Research Laboratory |
Dr. Mary Hudson | Dartmouth College |
Dr. Harm Jonker | Delft University of Technology |
Dr. Reto Knutti | ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
Dr. Hao-Sheng Lin | University of Hawai'i Manoa |
Dr. Elisabeth Lloyd | Indiana University |
Dr. William Lotko | Dartmouth College |
Dr. Latty Mahrt | Oregon State University |
Dr. Marty Mlynczak | NASA Langley Research Center |
Dr. Antonio Navarro | Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia |
Dr. Phiippe Naveau | Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et I'Environnement (LSCE) CNRS |
Dr. Bart Nijssen | University of Washington |
Prof. Lorenzo Polvani | Columbia University |
Dr. Mark Rast | University of Colorado |
Dr. Kevin Repasky | Montana State University |
Dr. Alfonso Saiz-Lopez | Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaction, Madrid |
Prof. Gunilla Svennson | University of Stockholm |
Dr. Laurent Terray | CERFACS |
Prof. Javier Trujillo-Bueno | Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias |
Dr. Lian-Ping Wang | University of Deleware |
Prof. Mei Zhang | Chinese Academy of Sciences |
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 (see list). 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 28 with the recent appointment of Mr. Richard “Rit” Carbone who is continuing his research on root causes of tropical oceanic rainfall errors in highly parameterized global models.
Emeritus/Emerita | Year of Appointment |
Jack Calvert | 2002 |
Rit Carbone | 2016 |
Al Cooper | 2013 |
James Dye | 2003 |
Fred Eisele | 2009 |
John Firor* | 1999 |
Brant Foote | 2017 |
John Gille | 2015 |
Peter Gilman | 2009 |
Roy Jenne* | 2013 |
Maura Hagan | 2015 |
Jackson Herring | 1998 |
Richard Katz | 2013 |
Charles Knight | 2013 |
Joachim Kuettner* | 2007 |
Margaret Lemone | 2009 |
Donald Lenschow | 2011 |
Bruce Lites | 2013 |
Roland Madden | 2002 |
William Mankin | 2003 |
Annick Pouquet | 2013 |
Art Richmond | 2017 |
Brian Ridley | 2007 |
Raymond Roble | 2009 |
Bob Serafin | 2001 |
Paul Swartztrauber* | 2004 |
David Williamson | 2014 |
Jim Wilson | 2014 |
*deceased
Date Range | Total Scientific/Technical Visits | 1-7 days | 8-14 days | 2 weeks-2 months | 2-6 months | 6 months or longer |
FY17 | 790 | 171 | 104 | 169 | 183 | 163 |
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 854 times and hailed from 349 institutions, located in 45 different U.S. states and 38 different countries.