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Town Hall Meeting: Requestable NSF Lower Atmospheric Observing Facilities for Scientific Research and Project-based Education

Tuesday, 4 February 2014, 12:15–1:15 p.m.;Room C204

This Town Hall Meeting will introduce participants to the suite of available National Science Foundation (NSF) observational research platforms and services available through the five Lower Atmospheric Observing Facilities (LAOF) partner organizations, and provide a clear roadmap on how to request these facilities in support of scientific field campaigns and educational activities. Facility Managers, experienced users of LAOF, and NSF representatives will provide information, guidance and advice on how to incorporate available instruments and platforms into an experiment design, what steps need to be taken to request one or more of these facilities, and how to maximize the success of a campaign.

Through its Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS), NSF provides multi-user national facilities through their LAOF Program in support of the geosciences community at no cost to the investigator. These facilities, which include research aircraft, radars, lidars, surface and sounding systems, receive NSF base support and are eligible for deployment funding.  While the program management resides within AGS in the NCAR/Facilities Section (NFS), the facilities are managed and operated by the five LAOF partner organizations - the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Colorado State University (CSU), the University of Wyoming (UWY), the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR) and the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS).

Observational facilities are available on a competitive basis to all qualified researchers from universities, NCAR and other government agencies requiring these research platforms and associated services to carry out various research objectives.  The deployment of all facilities is driven by scientific merit, capabilities of a specific facility to carry out the proposed observations, and scheduling for the requested time. UCAR will be providing a limited number of box lunches.

For additional information, please contact Alison Rockwell (email: [email protected]).