From the Director...

Previous directors have created a vibrant organization that exemplifies CIRA's mission to conduct research in the atmospheric sciences of mutual benefit to NOAA, Colorado State University and the nation as a whole. CIRA began with a fundamental understanding that problems related to weather and climate benefited deeply from the interaction between theoretical innovation associated with Academic Departments and the practical impetus that a NOAA Institute could provide. This was a visionary viewpoint at that time CIRA was founded in 1980 but it is a viewpoint that has held true for thirty years and is as true today as it was then. Thus CIRA stands today, with manpower versed in weather, climate, data assimilation, and computational infrastructure, ready to realize future gains in Weather and Climate related research and application.

Scientists working CIRA and CIRA-related research projects are tremendously productive and continue to discover and publish results in scientific journals, technical manuscripts and public media. This new knowledge transcends time scales from our understanding of weather to our understanding of climate, climate variability and climate change. It positions CIRA at the intersection of weather and climate that is likely to grow significantly in importance to both NOAA and the nation as we start to view not only weather, but also climate, as having important implications to our local ability to deal with global issues.

As CIRA enters this new era, it cannot forget that its only real, and greatest asset are the research scientists and the large number of hard working support staff that make all the new understanding and new applications possible. With over 120 employees with diverse skills and backgrounds in weather and climate, cloud physics, data assimilation, satellite data exploitation, computing, education and outreach, there is no challenge that CIRA cannot embrace as it moves forward. Whether it is sever weather, or the local impacts from a changing climate, I am confident that the exceptional research scientists and the support staff that work with them will make the next 30 years as fruitful as the first.

Christian Kummerow
Director of CIRA and Professor of Atmospheric Science