NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research

                   

    NCAR The National Center for Atmospheric Research is a remarkable institution that monitors, investigates, and tracts the weather effecting our daily lives. It is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

                 

Housed in a beautiful building designed by I. M. Pei,

 one of the greatest living member of the modernist generation of architects, the NCAR sits nestled in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado. 

       we got to play with a cloud and make microbursts.

     One of my favorite things was the ice core representation. By trapping gases, dust, and other materials, some ice core data from Antarctica provides information about climate more than 700,000 years in the past, a period which spans eight ice age cycles!

                      

    NCAR does research for NOAA. the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. 
        NOAA predicts changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, and works to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.

      

          

   One of my favorite things was the ice core representation. By trapping gases, dust, and other materials, some ice core data from Antarctica provides information about climate more than 700,000 years in the past, a period which spans eight ice age cycles!

                                    
    My other favorite things was this big blue globe filled with liquid. When spun around it showed current patterns. I really wanted one of those!
                     
     After our guided tour, we had a picnic lunch on the surrounding outdoor area which also includes a quarter mile trail for hiking. What a view, what a great afternoon. 
                    For more info visit NCAR

Mary Tharp cartographer and path finder.

 I find maps to be fascinating, and the older ones are such a wonderful time capsule of history. Mary Tharp  loved maps, and created them for a vast area she never saw. 

     A path-breaking American geologist and oceanographic cartographer Tharp's work revealed the presence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, leading scientist into accepting the apparently radical theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.

    "This is how they looked 250 million years ago. I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together," Tharp said. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime — a once-in-the-history-of-the-world —opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s." 

     Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, her mother was an instructor in German and Latin; her father made soil classification maps for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She graduated from Ohio University, and later received a masters degree in petroleum geology at a time when women obtained fewer than 4% of all earth sciences doctorates.  

   She worked with Bruce Heezen for 18 years. Barred from working aboard the research ship Vema because she was a woman, Mary drew the maps based on Heezen's bathyemtric data. In 1965 she was able to join the crew on a data-collection expidition. 

         It took years for her contributions to be recognized. In 1998 she was honored by the Library of Congress' Geography and Map Division, and the following year, she was recognized by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

      In 2001 she was honored by her home institution with the Lamont-Doherty Heritage Award. Today, a fellowship at Lamont-Doherty to promote women in science through the ADVANCE program bearing her name.

    Thank you Mary Tharp for following your dream, changing scientific beliefs, and going where few women had gone before.