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.

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.

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.