Joe Moore is an intern as Kestrel, working with the sales and marketing department this summer. He studies Meteorology at Millersville University with a minor in general business. Through one of his professors, Dr. Richard Clark, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Joe was selected to attend the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) Undergraduate Leadership Workshop in Boulder, CO.

I was very excited to visit NCAR this summer! As a student of meteorology, I knew some things about this giant center for research, but I was really excited when I was selected to attend this workshop. A few facts about NCAR/UCAR:

• UCAR was established by the University community to further the advancement of research in the atmospheric and related sciences
• UCAR created and manages NCAR, which is located across four campuses at and around Boulder, CO
• NCAR/UCAR employ around 1,500 people (including management and support staff)
• NCAR/UCAR is funded mostly through the National Science Foundation
• NCAR scientists research things such as climate change, hurricane development, severe weather warning systems, supercomputers, aircraft-based instrumentation and more!

During the workshop we attended, our first stop was the NCAR Mesa lab, which was designed by world-famous architect I.M. Pei. The structure can be seen while approaching Boulder, as it sits 600 feet above the city.

NCAR has a very large supercomputing facility to meet the needs of scientists who must run computer models which simulate things in the atmosphere- everything from pollution to severe thunderstorms to the earth’s climate. The Mesa lab also is host to the Visualization Laboratory, which is a high-tech conference room capable of displaying 3D simulations.

Another one of the labs I got to visit was the Research Aircraft Facility. We were lucky enough to catch one of the airplanes- the Gulfstream-V- was in the hanger, being prepared for a project called PREDICT which will deploy late this summer to research pre-development of tropical systems in the Atlantic. It was really cool to see scientific research on this scale, with so much coordination between everyone. Many of the instruments they take up on the plane and developed at RAF because a scientist wants to measure a certain atmospheric variable in-flight.

We also visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Wind Technology Center. There were many different types of wind turbines being tested, and it was very interesting for me to see how NREL works with industry to develop and market the technologies it develops. In addition to harnessing the power of wind, the facility made use of a large solar array to power its operations.

Of course, it wasn’t all research science at the workshop. We were fortunate enough to be able to take a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park where we had to walk across some snow to get to a lookout point. It was beautiful and really a treat for someone like me who normally doesn’t see mountains of this size.

Overall, I had a lot of fun at NCAR. I was able to meet my peers at other institutions and also meet some of the top atmospheric scientists in the world! While I’m back at Kestrel now for the rest of the summer, I was able to make some great connections at NCAR and I hope our paths cross again in the future.

For more information about the NCAR Undergraduate Leadership Workshop, check out the workshop page at NCAR’s website. You can find out more about NCAR and UCAR at their websites.

Wondering about weather words? Check out the Kestrel weather glossary online.

Tags: Kestrel Weather Meters, Kestrel Weather Meters, Meteorology