CIRA has provided a remarkable service to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University, to NOAA in its pursuit of mission objectives and to the broader atmospheric sciences since CIRA began in 1980. CIRA was borne out of the realization that complex questions in weather, climate, and related disciplines require a multidisciplinary team approach. This was a visionary viewpoint at that time and holds true today. CIRA also realized that addressing the major science challenges required a multifaceted research infrastructure rarely found in a single group. CIRA has contributed to many projects of national and international importance and has provided many science communities with sources of vital satellite data for many years.

Scientists working CIRA and CIRA-related research projects are discovering new knowledge not only about what is happening in the atmosphere but why it happens. This new knowledge transcends our understanding of weather to our understanding of climate variability and change. This makes CIRA well poised for the coming years that are likely to witness merged weather and climate services enterprise with NOAA. CIRA engineering has also made a number of profound contributions, especially in the collection and management of large satellite data sources, that underpins important national and international programs supporting scientists across the world. CIRA endeavors to move our discoveries into practice and application via an active program of technical transfer, outreach, education, and training.

CIRA is now entering a new era, one that seeks to move CIRA into new areas of discovery, new activities in support of the NOAA mission and new and exciting opportunities for understanding how our environment is changing around us. I am confident that CIRA’s science during the years to come will be as exciting and productive as it has been during its first 27 years.

Graeme Stephens
Director of CIRA and University Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science