NCAR’s Mission
Building national resilience through Earth system research, scientific empowerment, and a vision for our future.
The NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) established by the National Science Foundation in 1960. Its mission is to accelerate the nation’s ability to understand and predict atmospheric and geospace behavior for the betterment of life on Earth. Managed by the nonprofit UCAR consortium, NSF NCAR provides the scientific community with essential resources—such as supercomputers, research aircraft, and open-source models—that are beyond the reach of individual institutions.
The Blueprint for Atmospheric Leadership
The 2025-2029 NSF NCAR Strategic Plan outlines a "North Star" for the center, focusing on four interconnected themes designed to address the increasing frequency of billion-dollar environmental disasters and the evolving needs of society:
- Building National Resilience: NCAR is shifting toward "convergence research," which integrates diverse fields like social science and engineering to provide actionable information that helps communities prepare for hazards like wildfires and hurricanes.
- Understanding the Earth System: The center continues to prioritize fundamental research to close critical knowledge gaps in the "coupled Earth system"—exploring how the atmosphere, oceans, land, and Sun interact.
- Empowering the Scientific Community: By developing next-generation community models and observational platforms, NCAR ensures that researchers worldwide have the tools necessary to drive scientific breakthroughs.
- Inspiring Our Scientific Future: Recognizing that people are its foundation, NCAR partners with academic institutions to nurture a talented, interdisciplinary workforce and engage the public through education and outreach.
Through these efforts, NCAR aims to foster a collaborative research environment that leverages emerging technologies—including Airborn Phased Array Radar (APAR) for storm-scale observations, the Community Earth System Model (CESM3) for global simulations, and AI-Enhanced Modeling—all powered by the world-class high-performance computing capabilities of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center to ensure a safer and more resilient nation.
Alignment with NSB Vision 2030
The NSF NCAR mission directly advances the National Science Board’s Vision 2030, serving as a primary engine for the four key elements of U.S. S&E leadership:
- Practice of Science & Engineering: By pioneering "convergence research"—integrating social sciences with atmospheric modeling—NCAR fulfills the NSB's mandate to embrace new research modalities that solve complex, "of the moment" societal challenges.
- Talent Powerhouse: NCAR’s commitment to nurturing an interdisciplinary workforce aligns with the national goal of expanding the "Geography of Innovation" and cultivating a diverse STEM talent pool that reflects the nation’s demographic breadth.
- World-Class Infrastructure: Through the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center and advanced observational platforms like APAR, the center provides the "tools that let researchers see further, faster, and deeper," ensuring that the U.S. remains a magnet for the world's best scientific talent.
- Strategic Partnerships: Managed by the UCAR consortium, NCAR embodies the NSB’s vision for a "renewed government-university-industry partnership," accelerating the "discovery-to-innovation" cycle to deliver tangible economic and security benefits to the American public.
By anchoring its strategic themes in this national roadmap, NSF NCAR ensures that its research not only pushes the boundaries of the "endless frontier" but also secures the nation’s prosperity and resilience for the decade ahead.
