Imagine looking out the window and seeing this every day? Well that's exactly what scientists who work at Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) see. I had the opportunity to tour this one-of-a-kind facility last week as part of the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) Broadcast Conference, which was held in Denver. Over two hundred broadcast meteorologists from around the country came to hear presentations and tour NCAR. We also toured the nearby National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) labs. There, we learned about Space Weather and saw the NOAA facility dedicated to studying the sun:

Sunspots can have a significant influence in GPS and telecommunication systems and the Space Weather Group is constantly monitoring solar activity. We also saw a model of one of the geostationary weather satellites that provides us with the pictures we need to accurately forecast the weather:

One of the cool sights was this Weather Globe, which projects real-time or computer simulations on a globe. Three projectors are pointed at the globe; the images move, but the globe stays still. Nevertheless, it looks like the globe is moving. It's a great educational tool and some museums around the country have it, but not here in Houston.

One of the highlights of the conference was a panel discussion on global climate change.
These four have all studied various aspects of the issue and some have contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The ground-breaking IPCC report concluded that global temperatures are rising due to human activity, namely the burning of fossil fuels. Not all scientists, however, agree on the magnitude of this and whether or not it will continue based on climate models. However, it was useful to hear the information. I taped several interviews with some of these scientists and one of them can be heard in it's entirely on the See On 11 News section of the khou.com website.

Pictured are (l-r): Prof. James O'Brien a Florida State Oceanographer, Dr. Kevin Trenberth, an NCAR scientist and IPCC author, Dr. Pieter Tans, an NOAA researcher specializing in carbon dioxide studies and Dr. Warren Washington, past AMS president and climate model researcher.

During the tour, we were momentarily distracted when someone sighted a large elk sitting calmly near a window. Even though we all huddled to get a better look, he never moved. The NCAR residents say wildlife is often seen roaming the campus. Apparently, they were there first.

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