Strategic Guidance for the National Science Foundation's Support of the Atmospheric Sciences An Interim Report (2005) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Changing Context for Atmospheric Science
2 The Changing Context for Atmospheric Science
Pages 17-38
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From page 17... ...
The expansion of university, private-sector, and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) research and the development of new communications and computational infrastructure, coupled with greatly expanded research and operational efforts at other agencies and in other countries, has transformed understanding of the atmosphere, created new operational observational and modeling capabilities, and changed the way in which atmosphenc research is conducted.
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From page 18... ...
International collaborations, including large multi-investigator and multinational field campaigns, now play a major role and require a significant frachon of the research budget. The committee believes that this evolution of atmospheric science research since 1958 introduces not only new opportunities but also new challenges.
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From page 19... ...
It is not easy to track down exactly how much each agency spends on atmospheric research; Figure 2-2 shows efforts by the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM)
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The overall funding by these agencies for this year totals about $503 million. Note that the NSF fundmg only includes the foundation's contributions to space weather research and the U.S.
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ATM supports research in all of these academic enclaves. Along with efforts to increase the size of the atmosphenc sciences workforce, the meteorological community worked to make the production and communication of weather information more professional (NRC, 2003)
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Some of the highest impact and most transformative atmospheric research has taken place at disciplinary boundaries, including the discovery of and research on chaos theory, stratospheric ozone depletion, and climate change. Major efforts in climate modeling have depended upon cross-disciplinary connections.
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From page 24... ...
hnproving opportumties for cross-disciplinary research will require commitments from ATM and other NSF divisions that suppo t related research, Recorrrrnendahon: ATM should work to reduce mstitutional barriers withm NSF to appropriate cross-disciplina y research. INFORMATION TECIINOLOGY AND COMPUTATIONAL MODELING The extraordinary evolution in information technology over the past 50 years has had a huge impact on the atmospheric sciences.
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From page 25... ...
The NSF has funded a Science and Technology Center, the Center for integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) that is developing a set of coupled codes extending from the surface of the Sun to the upper atmosphere of Earth.
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From page 26... ...
The observing systems are supported for field programs by the NSF deployment pool. Major technical achievements in incoherent scatter radars along with the siting of these radars in a longitudinal network have enhamced process understamding of geomagnetic storms, Sun-Earth connections, and ionospheric disturbamces.
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From page 27... ...
. Although operational and monitonug data are often sufficient to study largerscale motions, field programs are needed for coordinated additional measurements to address specific questions regarding atmospheric processes not resolved by models, and requiring measurements not routinely made.
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From page 28... ...
was conducted in FY 2001 to address processes that detemmine the nature of deep convection in md near the East Pacific Intenropica Convergence Zone; the evolution of the vertical structure of the atmospheric boundary layer; and how sea-air coupling affects oce m mixed-layer dynamics and sea surface temperature in the East Pacific wamm pool. NOAA and Mexico also provided research facilities.
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From page 29... ...
Its objective was to characterize and understand the properties of trade-wind cumulus clouds at all spatial scales, with special emphasis on determining the importance of precipitation. University of Wyoming provided research facilities large, international field program—by providing three aircraft and significant support in planning and logistics Since GATE, the number of large and multinahonal field programs addressing tropospheric research questions has multiplied (e.g., see Table 2-2)
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From page 30... ...
Starling in the 1970s, numerical modelers influenced the location, type, and frequency of observations; the design of field programs to test parametenzation schemes for moist convection; and the forecasts used for measurement strategy. Now, the roles of models and observations are intimately entwined, with much more specific and useful guidance in more challenging forecast scenarios.
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From page 31... ...
, establishing aTropical Cyclone Projectin 1971, carrying out GATEin 1974, and coordinating the GARP Global Weather and Monsoon Expenments in 19781979. GATE provides a good illustration of the potential complexity of international atmospheric research: it involved 40 research ships, 12 research aircraft, many moorings, and 72 countries.
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The National Space Weather Program implementation Plan (July 2000) specifically calls for collaboration with entices such as the International Space Environment Service and the European Space Agency.
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From page 33... ...
investigators and international bodies will more fully understand the basis for ATM funding decisions that affect them and can plan accordingly. The United States has been a leader in supporting atmospheric research over the past decades, but recent years have seen increasing investments, sophistication, and leadership from other nations as well.
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From page 34... ...
In particular, this mechanism would be useful for evaluating potential ATM Evolvement m mtematior al field campaigns; m this case, existmg mtemational bodies (such as WCRP, the World Weather Research Program, and WMO) could help delenmne the merits of potential field campaigns.
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From page 35... ...
Interagency programs · Provide resources for graduate research International collaboration · Provide resources for graduate resee ch graduate institutions, and public outreach achvibes. Examples of the latter include a two-week summer school in space weather phenomena, consequences, and modeling offered by CISM, and related summer programs are also held at the Arecibo Observatory and at the Millstone Hill Radar.
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From page 36... ...
Although a few topics identified in the 1959 report have so matured through technical advances that continued research is not as prominent a feature of the scientific landscape as it was m the past, these are the exceptions. Further, a number of topics have been added to the menu of societal concerns, particularly seasonal-to-interannual climate forecasting, global change, space weather, and atmospheric dispersion of chemical, nuclear, and biological contaminants.
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From page 37... ...
The NSF-wide small-center programs (i.e., Science and Technology Centers and Engineering Research Centers have placed even more emphasis on education and outreach, as discussed in Chapter 3.
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