327 



NOAA, once it is firmly established (page 243 of the Commission 

 report). 



As the report points out, the NCAR is an existing atmospheric 

 science analog of the University-National Laboratories proposed to be 

 created for oceanic science areas. NCAK is operated by the University 

 Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit corporation con- 

 trolled by 27 member universities, whose geographical distribution 

 spans the United States. NCAR is sponsored by the National Science 

 Foundation. 



Its primary mission is to conduct major programs of atmospheric 

 research that embrace a scale of activity that would be too great for a 

 single university to conduct alone. It provides major atmospheric re- 

 search facilities both for its own staff and for joint use by other 

 organizations. 



For example, it operates a major high altitude balloon launch fa- 

 cility in Palestine, Tex. We have pioneered a very exciting globe- 

 circling weather-balloon program, based in New Zealand, that has 

 greatly extended our knowledge of stratospheric winds of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, w^here, of course, the oceans are far more dominant than 

 here in the Northern Hemisphere. 



"We also operate one of the Nation's outstanding computer centers 

 for the simulation of global weather interactions — behind which are 

 hidden the secrets of long-range forecasting and large-scale weather 

 modification, if we are ever to achieve long-range forecasting or 

 weather modification. 



It is a major planning center for large cooperative world weather 

 research programs, like the global atmospheric research program to 

 be mounted with broad national and international participation in 

 the late years of the next decade, and destined to be, in my view, one 

 of the most important programs of international scientific coopera- 

 tion that this Nation has ever engaged in. 



It would make good sense, in my mind, to consider the transfer of 

 support for NCAR to the NOAA only if the mission of the NOAA 

 puts the atmospheric sciences in an adequately central position, and 

 not simply as an adjunct to oceanic sciences, and provided the realms 

 of atmospheric research encompassed in NOAA are sufficiently broadly 

 interpreted. 



I should interpolate here that my remarks should in no way be 

 interpreted as being critical of NSF's sponsorship of NCAR, however. 

 NSF has provided strong and effective backing for the National 

 Center for Atmospheric Research, even though NCAR has been sub- 

 ject to the budgetary limitations that have been imjDosed on the NSF, 

 and this has slowed our program substantially. 



If you compare the NOAA report with the activity of NCAR and 

 the 27 universities with which NCAR is associated, it is clear that our 

 concept of the atmospheric sciences is far broader than the concept 

 of the atmosphere envisaged in the NOAA report. 



Much of NCAR's strength comes from its broad concept of atmos- 

 pheric science, reaching even to other planets and to the sun. 



NSF has provided fertile ground for this new concept. This broad 

 view of the atmospheric sciences extends from the surface of the earth 

 into the very high atmosphere and beyond. This concept embraces 

 the influences of the sun on the earth's atmosphere. It takes into 



