By the numbers

Staff as of

September 2021

Total

NCAR

UCAR

Community

Programs

All Staff 

(research, technical, administrative, and support, including casuals)

~1,240

Of which: ~220 in UCAR management or operations,  ~1,066 in Colorado, ~174 in other locations

~765

~255

Scientists (Ph.D.s, including tenure-track and project scientists) ~305 ~252 ~53
Postdoctoral fellows and researchers (Ph.D.s) ~69 ~48 ~21
Associate scientists (M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.) ~126 ~86 ~40
Engineers and software engineers ~199 ~156 ~43

 

Expenditures

Total

NCAR

UCAR

Community

Programs

Fiscal Year 2021

(October 2020–September 2021,

preliminary)
~$237.3 million ~$166.5 million ~$49.6 million

To avoid confusion

There are many atmospheric research organizations in Boulder. To avoid confusion:

  • NCAR is not a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or of NOAA’s National Weather Service or any other federal agency.

  • Neither NCAR nor UCAR are part of the University of Colorado. However, the University of Colorado is one of more than 115 colleges and universities that govern UCAR.

  • NCAR does not issue public weather forecasts. Projections of future weather and climate produced by our computer models as part of ongoing research may be posted on our website for research and educational purposes.

How to pronounce NCAR or UCAR

Since our founding, these two acronyms have been pronounced as words rather than individual letters:

  • EN-car
  • YOU-car

Because they're pronounced as words, both are generally written without "the" before the acronym.