{"id":24395,"date":"2026-06-16T20:12:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/16\/inside-the-white-house-plans-for-ncar-aip-org\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:12:04","slug":"inside-the-white-house-plans-for-ncar-aip-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/16\/inside-the-white-house-plans-for-ncar-aip-org\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the White House Plans for NCAR – AIP.ORG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Share<\/p>\n

The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.<\/p>\n

Richard Johnson \/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Court filings <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> in a lawsuit over the National Center for Atmospheric Research provide a clearer picture of the administration\u2019s ideas to eliminate or transfer major components of the research center and confirm that agency staff discussed the plans in detail without considering public input. The judge in the case temporarily blocked <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> the transfer of one major NCAR component on June 1, but it remains unclear whether the White House will continue to pursue other avenues to \u201cbreak up\u201d NCAR.
Though White House\u2019s intent to break up NCAR <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> was not publicly reported until Dec. 16, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought approved the decision to do so as early as November, according to a draft internal memo. <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> OMB staff exchanged details <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> on the plan for NCAR on Dec. 17. These include \u201ctaking action against\u201d climate change research at NCAR\u2019s Climate and Global Dynamics Lab (CGD) and Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling (ACOM) program, as well as transferring major infrastructure to operators other than NCAR.
The National Science Foundation, which funds NCAR, issued a Dear Colleague Letter <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> a month later asking for public comment on various scientific activities and one of the buildings at NCAR. Few decisions have since been announced regarding NCAR\u2019s future. NSF declined to comment on its plan to restructure NCAR or the proposals shared in the OMB emails.
OMB has attempted to draw a clear line between NCAR\u2019s weather and climate work, with an eye toward discarding the latter. Vought\u2019s announcement states that NCAR is \u201cone of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country\u201d and that any of its \u201cvital activities,\u201d such as weather research, would be moved to other entities or locations. The draft memo states that a key component of reforming NCAR is to \u201crescope\u201d its research and modeling to focus on weather instead of climate modeling. According to the court documents, NSF leadership has privately stated <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> \u201cconcerns that NCAR in its current form may be too large and complex to be nimble in responding to changing agency and administration priorities.\u201d
However, the documents also reveal cases where that distinction is not so straightforward. One email from an OMB staffer includes ACOM in a list of \u201cpolicy aligned functions\u201d because its research relates to weather, fire weather, and water modeling. In a reply, a different staffer states that OMB is instead \u201ctaking action against\u201d ACOM because it \u201cinvestigates greenhouse gases and other chemical processes related to climate change, which informs regulations on emissions that the administration does not support.\u201d
The OMB emails propose \u201ctaking action against\u201d ACOM and against climate change research at CGD, which studies climate variability, long-term climate change, and the role of human activities in global warming, one OMB email states. \u201cThis work directly supports international agreements like the Paris Accord which this administration does not support,\u201d it adds.
The email does not specify how the administration plans to take action against these labs. Though it criticizes the labs\u2019 climate research, it is unclear whether the administration would maintain some parts of the labs, \u201crescope\u201d <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> their work, or eliminate them entirely.
The email says Vought intends to close Mesa Lab, which currently houses CGD. NSF requested expressions of interest from other public or private users to take over the building in its Dear Colleague Letter.
Another OMB email, also sent Dec. 17, suggests \u201ctransitioning\u201d CGD, as well as the Earth Observing Lab (EOL) and the Education, Engagement, and Early-Career Development program, \u201cto better-aligned university programs across the country,\u201d indicating that these functions would be moved out of NCAR. However, the same email lists ACOM as a \u201cpolicy aligned function\u201d supporting weather research.
The emails express OMB\u2019s intent to maintain major equipment and infrastructure as part of a new Energy-Water Security Initiative at NSF, but transfer them to a different operator than NCAR. These include the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Wyoming, two research aircraft, and the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in Hawaii.
In February, NSF officials told the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research \u2014 NCAR\u2019s operating organization \u2014 that the agency would transfer the NWSC from UCAR to the University of Wyoming. UCAR\u2019s lawsuit aims to block the transfer, among other administration decisions that have negatively affected NCAR. The OMB emails from Dec. 17 already propose transferring the NWSC to the University of Wyoming, the same day NSF said it was \u201cexploring options\u201d to do so. One email states that the supercomputer \u201cis an asset that NSF will continue to fund,\u201d but that the administration \u201cwill refocus its work away from climate.\u201d The June 1 preliminary injunction temporarily blocked this transfer, and the judge still needs to decide whether NSF can ultimately go through with it.
NSF\u2019s Dec. 17 announcement also said NSF is considering divesting of or transferring two research aircraft to another federal agency. Both aircraft are currently housed at and managed by EOL, which one of the OMB emails suggests transitioning to a university program. The email adds that the two aircraft, as well as another NCAR aircraft that is managed by the University of Wyoming, could be transitioned to a fleet of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, such as the hurricane hunter fleet. Subsequent emails only refer to the two EOL aircraft. Science reported <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> in March that NOAA or NASA is expected to take over the two aircraft.
According to one email, NOAA sent OMB a list of NCAR functions that could potentially move out of NSF to NOAA or to university programs. The email does not provide further information on what functions the list included.
The OMB emails also state that NSF will continue to support the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, citing its importance for space weather research, but will transfer it to a new managing entity. NCAR\u2019s High Altitude Observatory (HAO) manages the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, so it is unclear whether OMB intends to maintain HAO.
In an email to NSF acting Director Brian Stone, one OMB official provided a list of NCAR functions that \u201ccan be defended\u201d as supporting the Energy-Water Security Initiative proposed in NSF\u2019s budget request <\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/span> for fiscal year 2027. These include the Research Applications Lab, the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Lab, and the Computational and Information Systems Lab, because they focus on water forecasting and AI and other computing tools. The list also includes several other computing and modeling functions, including the NWSC supercomputer.
The administration proposed $100 million for NSF and $75 million for the Department of Energy for the Energy-Water Security Initiative to \u201creduce vulnerabilities where water-related issues threaten reliable energy production.\u201d The funding for the initiative will depend on congressional appropriations: the House proposals for NSF and DOE do not include funding amounts for this initiative and the Senate has yet to release its proposals.
American Institute of Physics advances, promotes and serves the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity.
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, AIP is a federation that advances the success of our Member Societies and an institute that engages in research and analysis to empower positive change in the physical sciences. The mission of AIP (American Institute of Physics) is to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity.
American Institute of Physics advances, promotes and serves the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity.
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, AIP is a federation that advances the success of our Member Societies and an institute that engages in research and analysis to empower positive change in the physical sciences. The mission of AIP (American Institute of Physics) is to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity.
\u00a9 2026 American Institute of Physics<\/p>\n

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Share The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. Richard Johnson \/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Court filings in a lawsuit over the National Center for Atmospheric Research provide a clearer picture of the administration\u2019s ideas to eliminate or transfer major components of the research center and confirm that agency staff discussed the plans in detail without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}