A team of scientists is tackling a scenario that is the stuff of Hollywood thrillers: What happens if a medium-sized asteroid strikes Earth? In particular, what if it crashes into the ocean? The question is not fanciful.

The concepts of environmental sustainability that broke into public awareness in the 1970s took on new overtones two decades later. In its first report, released in 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made it clear that ever-increasing amounts of human-produced greenhouse gases posed a real risk to a sustainable future.

From its inception, NCAR provided a wide range of research-oriented computing and observing facilities. The initial focus was on centralized capabilities: networking was virtually nonexistent, and the huge cost of computers constrained university use.

Scientists in the UCAR community found themselves on the front lines of the cyber revolution that stormed the world in the 1990s. Many UCAR universities were early adopters of the World Wide Web, a technology well suited to a science that thrives on distributed data and collaboration.

Intrigued by an atmospheric mystery bringing down aircraft, a small group of scientists at NCAR embarked on a series of field studies from the late 1970s through the 1980s.