The 1970s brought the United States a string of fierce winters and a spate of speculation on a cooling climate. Many atmospheric scientists had a different worry: they knew that carbon dioxide in the air had been increasing for decades and that global temperatures should rise before long.

When scientists around the world began planning the most ambitious weather observing study in history, NCAR was a natural partner.

Rarely before the 1980s did a scientific issue jump from the corridors of research to the halls of international diplomacy in less than a decade. Such was the case when a profound threat to the Antarctic’s protective layer of stratospheric ozone became apparent.

Years before it housed aircraft or supercomputers, NCAR was sending balloons into the stratosphere. Bolstered by new space-age technology, this simple but powerful observing strategy gathered critical data from hard-to-reach places.

NCAR’s Mesa Laboratory saw thousands of comings and goings in its first few years, but only one arrival needed a new room to accommodate it.