2 November 2010  •  The new director of NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory is Michael Thompson, who also serves as an NCAR associate director. Thompson was previously head of the University of Sheffield’s School of Mathematics and Statistics. He succeeds Michael Knölker, who had served as HAO director since 1994. Thompson was an NCAR affiliate scientist for seven years and a regular visitor since completing a postdoctoral appointment at HAO in the late 1980s. He uses inverse techniques to study the internal structure and dynamics of the Sun and other stars. Thompson holds a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in helioseismology (the study of the Sun’s oscillations). An interview with Thompson recently appeared in NCAR’s internal newsletter, Staff Notes.

A U.S. strategy for federal and nonfederal activities on climate adaptation is outlined in a report (PDF) released on 29 September. It emerged from a May summit (recently summarized by Jack Fellows in UCAR Magazine) organized by UCAR as the result of an informal conversation between UCAR trustees and U.S. presidential science and technology advisor John Holdren. The summit identified seven near-term priorities, including a climate information portal, a clearinghouse for best practices in adaptation, and a series of regional forums. “Effective adaptation will require improved coordination within agencies and among agencies, states, regions and the private sector,” the report notes.

Catalog searching at the NCAR Library recently took a leap forward with the advent of OpenCat. This open-source application provides new levels of searching capabilities as well as additional features, including a virtual browsing shelf and a variety of language options.

Errata: The “In the Air” section of the summer 2010 print issue of UCAR Magazine included a statistic on the amount of power anticipated to be generated by Cape Wind, the wind farm planned for offshore New England. The correct value is 468,000 kilowatts.

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