About | News & Events | Products | Jobs 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
About | News & Events | Products | Jobs |
||
| |||||||||
| HOME | |
SCIENCE | |
EDUCATION | |
COLLABORATION | |
SEARCH CIRES | |
|
|||||||||
Chapter 7. Atmospheric and Oceanic Research in CIRES: Atmospheric Physics, Cryospheric and Polar Processes,and Climate DynamicsRoger G. Barry, Howard P. Hanson, and Uwe Radok Background and ContextAs discussed briefly in chapter two, early work in atmospheric physics programs at CIRES focused on investigations of waves in the atmosphere. Dynamic waves (in particular, gravity waves) received attention for the role they play in interactions with mean flows and their development in stable layers. Electromagnetic waves-across the full range of the spectrum-received attention for their potential use in remote sensing instrumentation. This foundation has led to a continually growing and vibrant set of programs in these topics and related ones in the disciplines of cryospheric and polar processes and of climate dynamics.
The divisions between these categories are somewhat arbitrary, and, further, there is not a truly linear progression from one end to the other of this size spectrum. For example, it is often the case that small, PIdriven projects overlap and interact with large NOAA programs. The purpose of defining these categories is simply to provide organization for this historical account. In particular, the evolution of NOAA programs over the past three decades is well documented in the NOAA archives (in the annual NOAA/ERL Programs and Plans compilations, for example). A complete discussion of the long list of PI-driven research at CIRES is well beyond the scope of this brief history. Thus, what receives attention here is the middle category, the medium-scale projects that "grew up" at CIRES as a result of interactions among the CIRES fellows, the Boulder community of their colleagues, and coincident federal research priorities. Any discussion of the development of CIRES' current portfolio of programs in these areas must occur in the context of the large community of atmospheric and oceanic researchers in the Boulder area, a mecca for activity in these topics. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other research units and academic departments at the University-in particular, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS, formerly Astrogeophysics), and the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, as well as local private industry-have all played roles in shaping the evolution of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at CIRES. In addition, connections to other CIRES activities, especially atmospheric chemistry, have played strong roles in this evolution. And the very nature of federally sponsored research, in which the academic community both guides federal research priorities and is funded through the agencies' programs addressing these priorities, is interwoven with this entire suite of interactions. From the beginning, atmospheric and oceanic research at CIRES was constrained by two conscious decisions, one external and one internal to CU. First, the priorities and decisions of the Colorado state governing board for higher education (now the Colorado Commission on Higher Education) have always provided an important context for programs at CU-Boulder. Because the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University grew out of that school's connection to both agricultural and military interests, the State governing board endorsed a strong atmospheric science program at CSU. Consequently, CU-Boulder did not, until quite recently, develop a focused instructional program in either meteorology or oceanography. Instead, at the time of CIRES formation, courses relevant to such a program were part of the curricula in (physical) Geography, several of the Engineering School Departments, and Astrogeophysics. Faculty in these various disciplinary areas had research programs, and the development of additional atmospheric and oceanic sciences research at CIRES occurred in parallel and in collaboration with this faculty research. Second, the decision by the National Science Foundation to site the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder-a decision for which the late Walter Orr Roberts deserves substantial credit-colored the thinking at CU-Boulder about its role in atmospheric and oceanic research. In particular, the strong group assembled at NCAR to develop large-scale models of the coupled atmosphere-ocean system and its various components motivated a decision at CU-Boulder to avoid direct competition and duplication in these areas. This decision has strongly guided the development of atmospheric and oceanic research at CIRES over the decades. As a result, CIRES research activities grew up dealing with process studies rather than large-scale simulation, and they have focused on geographic regions that play important roles in the whole-earth-scale climate system. The tropics and the polar regions, specifically, have received considerable attention as CIRES research programs grew over the years.
|
