Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that NCAR presents its Annual Scientific Report for fiscal year 1998. This web document includes a description of all the activities of the Center over the past fiscal year in scientific research, technological development, community interactions and educational outreach.

FY1998 marked the beginning of a new five year cooperative agreement between the National Science Foundation and NCAR's corporate managers, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. In conjunction with NSF and UCAR, NCAR has determined six primary scientific and technological priorities for the coming decade. These are:

• Fundamental Research: In keeping with the mission of the NSF, the foundation of NCAR's program is fundamental research, particularly research of sufficient complexity to command the resources of a national center. Studies in atmosphere and ocean dynamics, microphysics, fundamental chemical reactions, climate variability, turbulence, and internal solar processes and characteristics are just a few of the basic research topics that NCAR pursues

• Understanding and Predicting the Earth System: NCAR and its many university collaborators carry out major cross-cutting, interdisciplinary efforts to model the earth system. NCAR scientists are actively participating in several national research efforts, including the US Weather Research Program, the US Global Change Research Program and the US Space Weather Program. Areas of scientific emphasis include research on prediction of weather on short temporal and small spatial scales, longer-term prediction of monthly and seasonal means, and studies of the influence of human, solar and other forcing processes on weather and climate. NCAR also participate in major field campaigns to make observations and acquire data for incorporation into coupled system models.

• Advanced Scientific Facilities: NCAR continues to put a high priority on developing new and cutting-edge scientific facilities, including computing systems, instruments and observing sytems, community models, datasets and advanced networking and communications tools, as well as providing these facilities to the atmospheric sciences community. Major emphases in the coming decade will consist of the acquisition of a new high-altitude research aircraft, supercomputing systems and remote sensing technologies.

• Human Dimensions and Societal Impacts: NCAR places increasing emphasis on studying the impacts of weather and climate on society; on human influences on the climate system; on society's ability to cope with weather- and climate-related impacts and on the use and value of meteorological, climate, and other atmosphere-related information. NCAR will incorporate a human dimensions component into all its major research programs where appropriate.

• Education and Training: NCAR will continue and strengthen its efforts in education through the Advanced Study Program, the support of students, visitors and colloquia in NCAR's programs, and specific education programs like SOARS and Project LEARN. NCAR's educational programs encompass all education levels, from K-12 through Post-doctoral. In addition, NCAR maintains a strong public outreach program through its tours and outreach program.

• Applications and Technology/Information Transfer: NCAR is committed to transferring information, technology and research results to the public and private sectors, university colleagues and constituents through direct transfer to users, s, public domain access through the Internet, and licensing of complex technologies. New, exciting opportunities will be explored in advancing computational science software applications for weather forecasting for specific user-groups in transporation, energy and agriculture.