The Management and Operation of the National Center for Atmoshperic Research (NCAR)

国家大气研究中心(NCAR)是NSF联邦资助的研究和开发中心。NCAR的使命是：了解大气层和相关的地球和地球航天系统的行为；支持、增强和扩展大学社区和更广泛的科学界在国内和国际上的能力，并促进知识和技术的转让，以改善地球上的生命。NCAR通过围绕三个重叠的主要活动领域组织的紧密集成的计划来完成这一使命：尖端的机载和地面观测设施、拥有数千用户的社区天气和气候模型，以及千万亿级高性能计算。伴随而来的是广泛的项目组合，支持教育、职业发展、公众参与和增加地球科学的多样性。该奖项资助大学大气研究公司(UCAR)代表NSF管理和运营NCAR。了解地球系统是我们这个时代最令人兴奋和最重要的科学挑战之一--从每年给国家造成数百亿美元损失的危险天气事件的驱动因素，到气候变化对水循环、水可获得性和极端天气的长期影响。在UCAR的管理下，NCAR将与更广泛的科学界合作，在更大的时间和更精细的空间尺度上观察、理解并最终预测大气和地球系统相关组成部分的演变。最终，这些进步将提高我们的国家--S--保护生命和财产的能力，增强美国经济，支持国家安全。UCAR自1960年以来对NCAR进行了强有力的管理，其目标是确保NCAR继续成为社区领导者和卓越的国家中心，通过在知识前沿进行基础和变革性研究来推动大气和地球系统科学界的发展。UCAR将运营、维护和开发NCAR最先进的观测、计算和建模设施和服务。UCAR将通过为国家中心招聘、发展和保留一名专家和日益多样化的劳动力来支持NCAR。UCAR还将推动一项雄心勃勃的包容性研究、教育和推广计划，以服务于科学界，并正在积极采取行动，增加其文化和地球科学工作者STEM教育的多样性和包容性。UCAR的愿景包括确定未来的需求；制定令人信服的NCAR战略计划；让社区参与规划、实施和审查；提供有效和高效的基于绩效的资源管理；对NCAR进行战略投资；创造一个吸引和留住优秀人才的环境；以及建立促进科学发展的新伙伴关系。UCAR通过其117个成员以及许多学术、政府和行业合作伙伴带来了独特的治理结构，这将加强和促进NCAR代表广泛的国家和国际利益。根据这一奖项，预计NCAR将继续发挥领导作用，创造客观信息，支持关于缓解、适应、复原力和可持续性的国家和国际决策；并与其科学的消费者互动。这将导致提高预测能力，并更有效地将这些进步应用于社会需求。由于UCAR的管理以学术界为基础，其管理结构促进了未来多元化科学家的发展，为学生提供了获得世界领先设施和令人兴奋的研究机会的机会，并通过成功的外联计划吸引了公众。UCAR自由和开放地交换思想、数据、模型、观测仪器和平台以及信息的政策将最大限度地发挥中心研究、开发和教育活动的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is an NSF Federally Funded Research and Development Center. NCAR's mission is: to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related Earth and geospace systems; to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the university community and the broader scientific community, nationally and internationally, and to foster the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth. NCAR fulfills this mission with tightly integrated programs organized around three overlapping primary areas of activity: cutting edge airborne and ground-based observational facilities, community weather, and climate models with many thousands of users, and petascale high-performance computing. These are accompanied by a broad portfolio of programs supporting education, career development, public engagement, and increasing diversity in the geosciences. This award funds the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to manage and operate NCAR on behalf of NSF. Understanding the Earth system is among the most exciting and important scientific challenges of our time - from the drivers of hazardous weather events that cost the nation tens of billions of dollars in damage each year to the longer-term impacts of climate change on the water cycle, water availability, and weather extremes. Under UCAR's management, NCAR will work with the broader scientific community to observe, understand, and ultimately predict the evolution of the atmosphere and related components of the Earth system at greater time and finer spatial scales. Ultimately, these advances will improve our nation?s ability to protect lives and property, enhance the American economy, and support national security. Building upon its strong stewardship of NCAR since 1960, UCAR aims to ensure that NCAR continues to be a community leader and preeminent National Center that advances the atmospheric and Earth system science communities by conducting fundamental and transformative research at the frontiers of knowledge. UCAR will operate, maintain and develop NCAR's state-of-the-art observational, computational, and modeling facilities and services. UCAR will support NCAR by recruiting, developing, and retaining an expert and increasingly diverse workforce for the National Center. UCAR will also promote an ambitious and inclusive program of research, education, and outreach to serve the scientific community, and is moving aggressively to increase diversity and inclusiveness in its culture and in STEM education for the geosciences workforce. UCAR's vision includes identifying future requirements; developing compelling NCAR strategic plans; involving the community in planning, implementation and review; providing effective and efficient performance-based management of resources; making strategic investments in NCAR; creating an environment that attracts and retains exceptional talent; and enabling new partnerships that advance the science. UCAR brings a unique governance structure through its 117 members and many academic, government, and industry partners that will strengthen and promote NCAR to represent broad national and international interests. Under this award, it is anticipated that NCAR will maintain a leadership role in creating objective information in support of national and international decisions on mitigation, adaptation, resiliency, and sustainability; and engaging interactively with the consumers of its science. This will result in improved prediction capabilities and more effective application of these advances to societal needs. Because UCAR's governance is based in academia, its management structure facilitates the development of future diverse scientists, provides access to world-leading facilities and exciting research opportunities for students, and engages the public through successful outreach program. UCAR's policy of free and open exchange of ideas, data, models, observational instruments and platforms, and information will maximize the impacts of the Center's research, development, and educational activities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.