HAO was originally founded in 1940 as a branch of the Harvard College Observatory, was transferred to the University of Colorado in the late 1940s, before becoming part of NCAR when the latter was founded in 1960.
Mission and vision
HAO's mission is to understand the behavior of the Sun and its impact on the Earth, to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the university community and the broader scientific community, nationally and internationally, and to foster the transfer of knowledge and technology. As articulated in its Strategic Plan for 2011–2015, HAO's vision is to: Perform world-leading science to understand fundamentally and with predictive capability the sources and nature of solar and geospace variability; Provide scientific leadership and facilities to serve the wider community in common pursuit of these science objectives, and both support and benefit from the NCAR community; Support the education and training of early-career researchers in solar-terrestrial physics and instrumentation; and Provide advocacy for solar-terrestrial physics, promoting its results, and articulating its societal importance, to the rest of NCAR, the NSF, the university community, and the public.
1952 - Khartoum, Sudan This was a joint HAO – Naval Research Laboratory expedition, which obtained 50 spectra of the eclipse features of the sun.
1958 – Pukapuka, Cook Islands in the Pacific This was a joint HAO – Sacramento Peak expedition that was unable to obtain a single photo due to rainstorms.
1959 – Fuertaventura, Canary Islands of Spain A joint HAO – Sacramento Peak expedition
This photograph of the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, was taken by a research team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory during a total solar eclipse on 12 November 1966, at Pulacayo, Bolivia. It was taken with a special camera designed by Gordon Newkirk of NCAR.
This photograph of the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, was taken by a research team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory during a total solar eclipse on 7 March 1970. It was taken at an altitude of 8,800 feet (2,700 meters) on a remote mountain site in southern Mexico with a special camera designed by Gordon Newkirk of NCAR.
This color-enhanced photograph of the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, was made by a research team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory during a total solar eclipse on 30 June 1973 at Loiyengalani, Kenya. It was taken with a special camera designed by Gordon Newkirk of NCAR.
1980 – Palem, India HAO in collaboration with Southwestern at Memphis College, Tennessee
1981 – Tarma, Siberia, USSR HAO in collaboration with the Astronomical Council of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow
1983 – Tanjung Kodok, Indonesia
1988 - Mindanao, Philippines In Provocation No. 214, Dr. Roberts discusses the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) expedition to the Philippines to observe the eclipse of March 18. HAO expedition staff included Dick Fisher, Kristy Rock, Mike McGrath, and Lee Lacey.[5]
1991 - Mauna Loa, Hawaii HAO in collaboration with Rhodes College, Tennessee
Walter Orr Roberts was a graduate student under Donald Menzel at Harvard, and helped him set up a solar telescope at the Oak Ridge Station of Harvard College Observatory. In 1939, Menzel located a site for a western station in the Colorado mountains. In his unpublished memoirs, Menzel writes: “I returned the following summer, supervised the building of the observatory and an observer’s residence [on the mining property of Climax Molybdenum Company at Climax, Colorado], and started the installation of the equipment.[9]
“This branch of the Harvard College Observatory informally opened on 8 September 1940 at Climax Colorado (elevation 11,520 ft.). Its sole purpose was to study the sun, using the first coronagraph in the western hemisphere.” [10]
Walter Roberts and his wife arrived in the summer of 1940, and remained at the observatory for 7 years (throughout WWII and beyond). Menzel continues: “In the summer of 1940, however, Walter and I quickly solved the problems of our coronagraph. After I left, he soon had it working properly. He obtained daily records of the spectrum of the corona, which furnished us with a valuable index of solar activity.
At Climax, Walter Roberts quickly proved observationally what most astronomers had previously suspected, that the corona itself rotated with the same period as the solar surface, in something over twenty-five days. He initiated a study of the fine structure of the solar atmosphere, determining the behavior of what he called “spicules,” a phenomenon that I had myself briefly discussed while at Lick Observatory. These studies formed the basis for his doctorate thesis submitted for the degree a year or two later.” [11]
Work at the observatory was classified during WWII because of its value in predicting radio disturbances from the study of the corona. "The wartime work of the observatory was done under the auspices of the Navy, although overall direction remained in the hands of Harvard.” Post WWII, The National Bureau of Standards contracted the observatory for reports on solar activity. In 1946, CU Boulder became a joint sponsor with Harvard of the observatory, while the Central Radio Propagation Laboratory (CRPL) of the NSB funded HAO's operational costs. The headquarters of HAO was moved to Boulder in 1947.[12]
Directors
The founding director of the High Altitude Observatory was Walter Orr Roberts. The current director is Scott McIntosh. A list of all HAO directors since the founding of the observatory is given below.
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa is Earth's largest active volcano by both mass and volume. It was historically considered to be the largest volcano on Earth until Tamu Massif was discovered to be larger. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, and a volume estimated at 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km3), although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea. Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and tend to be non-explosive.
The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is a United States federally funded research and development center to advance the knowledge of the physics of the Sun. NSO studies the Sun both as an astronomical object and as the dominant external influence on Earth. NSO is headquartered in Boulder and operates facilities at a number of locations - at the 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in the Haleakala Observatory on the island of Maui, at Sacramento Peak near Sunspot in New Mexico, and six sites around the world for the Global Oscillations Network Group one of which is shared with the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a US nonprofit consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities providing research and training in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and provides additional services to strengthen and support research and education through its community programs. Its headquarters, in Boulder, Colorado, include NCAR's Mesa Laboratory, designed by I.M. Pei.
John Allen "Jack" Eddy was an American astronomer. He studied historical sunspot records, and popularised the name Maunder Minimum for the sunspot minimum which occurred in the late 17th century.
The Keeling Curve is a graph of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii from 1958 to the present day. The curve is named for the scientist Charles David Keeling, who started the monitoring program and supervised it until his death in 2005.
The Haleakalā Observatory, also known as the Haleakalā High Altitude Observatory Site, is Hawaii's first astronomical research observatory. It is located on the island of Maui and is owned by the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaiʻi, which operates some of the facilities on the site and leases portions to other organizations. Tenants include the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN). At over 3,050 meters (10,010 ft) in altitude, the summit of Haleakalā is above one third of the Earths's troposphere and has excellent astronomical seeing conditions.
The Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) is an atmospheric baseline station on Mauna Loa, on the island of Hawaii, located in the U.S. state of Hawaii.
Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) is a solar observatory located on the slopes of Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is operated by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), a laboratory within the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The MLSO sits on property managed by the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). MLSO was built in 1965.
The US National Center for Atmospheric Research is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NCAR has multiple facilities, including the I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Studies include meteorology, climate science, atmospheric chemistry, solar-terrestrial interactions, environmental and societal impacts.
Walter Orr Roberts was an American astronomer and atmospheric physicist, as well as an educator, philanthropist, and builder. He founded the National Center for Atmospheric Research and took a personal research interest for many years in the study of influences of the Sun on weather and climate.
The Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research is a research center located in Boulder, Colorado. The building complex was designed by modernist architect I. M. Pei in 1961 as his first project outside of city building design. It has been noted for its Anasazi-inspired architecture and use of bush-hammered concrete to blend into the surrounding area. The laboratory was named the 1967 Industrial Research Magazine's Laboratory of the Year.
Warren Morton Washington is an American atmospheric scientist, a former chair of the National Science Board, and currently a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
Antonio Busalacchi Jr. is the eighth president of the Boulder, Colorado-based University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. He began serving as UCAR president in August 2016.
Harold "Hal" Zirin was an American solar astronomer also known as Captain Corona to a generation of Caltech Astronomy students.
John W. Firor was an American physicist. He was director of the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) from 1961 to 1968, and director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) from 1968 to 1974.
Gordon Allen Newkirk Jr. was an American astrophysicist.
Robert Moffat MacQueen is an American physicist. He received his B.S. from Rhodes College in physics in 1960 where he was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1968 in atmospheric sciences. In 1967, he joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) as a staff scientist and attained senior scientist status in 1973. He was principal investigator for the White Light Coronagraph operated by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) aboard the crewed Skylab satellite from 1970 to 1977. In 1974, he received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his Skylab work as principal investigator of the white light coronagraph experiment that took nearly 36,000 photographs during the Apollo flight.
The Sunspot Solar Observatory (SSO) is an astronomical observatory designed for the study of the Sun. The observatory is operated by New Mexico State University (NMSU) and the U.S. National Solar Observatory (NSO). It is split between operations at the telescope facility at Sunspot, New Mexico, and data and management at the Department of Astronomy at New Mexico State University. The Sunspot telescope facility is in the Sacramento Mountains, approximately 18 miles (29 km) south of Cloudcroft. Access to the facility telescopes and grounds are open for to the public for guided tours. It is funded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with the state of New Mexico.
Maura E. Hagan is a Professor of Physics and Dean of the College of Science at Utah State University. She is a Fellow of both the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019.
Annick Gabrielle Pouquet is a computational plasma physicist specializing in plasma turbulence. She was awarded the 2020 Hannes Alfvén Prize for "fundamental contributions to quantifying energy transfer in magneto-fluid turbulence". She currently holds positions in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and National Center for Atmospheric Research at the University of Colorado Boulder.
↑ Remembering Walt Roberts. (1991). University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, p.13.
↑ Hallgren, E. L. (1974). The University Corporation for Atmospheric research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1960-1970: An institutional history. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. (p.55).
↑ Hallgren, E. L. (1974). The University Corporation for Atmospheric research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1960-1970: An institutional history. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. (p.15).
↑ Hallgren, E. L. (1974). The University Corporation for Atmospheric research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1960-1970: An institutional history. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. (pp.56-59).
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