Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) Records
Content Description
This collection consists of records created by the Research Applications Laboratory. This collection was processed with support from the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics.
Administrative records include various NCAR reports, committee meeting minutes, company retreat and workshop summaries, and review materials.
Aviation industry records include correspondence and reports relating to work with various organizations including ALPA (Airline Pilot Association), AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), and aircraft incident reports and investigations.
Field project records include reports, log books, graphs, data printouts, photographs and correspondence.
In addition, the collection contains conference and congressional hearing materials, grey literature, white papers, research materials, and general correspondence.
Materials also include computer discs, video tapes, and films.
Dates
- Creation: 1960 - 2015
Conditions Governing Access
Not all of the material in this collection is in the public domain. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine copyright and obtain permission to use materials.
All records must be viewed in the Archives. The Archives does not have playback capability for some materials.
Biographical / Historical
The Research Applications Laboratory (RAL) grew from a small research and development program (Research Applications Program, or RAP as it was then known) at NCAR in the early 1980s to an NCAR laboratory with six divisions focused on specific applications areas.
The Research Applications Laboratory's mission is to conduct directed research that contributes to fundamental understanding of the atmosphere and related physical, biological, and social systems; to support, enhance, and extend the capabilities of the scientific community; and to develop and transfer knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth.
Full Extent
28 Boxes : 25 record cartons, 2 letter-size archival boxes,1 archival film reel box
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The materials have been arranged into 9 series.
1) Administrative Records;
2) Aviation Industry;
3) General Correspondence;
4) Conferences and Congressional hearings;
5) Field Projects;
6) Publications;
7) Research Materials;
8) Miscellaneous Files and Correspondence;
9) Audiovisual Materials.
All materials have been arranged chronologically within the series as much as possible. Field projects are arranged alphabetically by project within the series.
Physical Location
G, 6, 1-5; G, 7, 4-5
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Roughly 20 standard banker's boxes of RAL materials were returned from the Iron Mountain storage facility when NCAR's contract with them ended around 2010.
Inger Barron submitted an additional 6 boxes of RAL grey literature, field project documentation, and administrative materials in July of 2015.
Corinne Morse, project Software Engineer on the JAWS Juneau project, submitted a box full of logbooks in September of 2015.
Inger Barron also submitted materials from Dan Breed upon his retirement. These materials consist of a project manual and microfilm from the Convection and Precipitation Electrification Experiment (CaPE) in October of 2016.
Lisa Goodrich submitted four (4) films that were digitized; and 8mm videotapes that were not digitized; as well as 1 film called "July Hailstorm", which has subsequently been digitized in 2018.
Materials related to field projects, programs, and administrative records were also transferred from Bob Barron, Kathleen Miller, William Mahoney, and Bruce Carmichael in 2017 and 2018.
Processing Information
All original materials were removed from ringbinders, folders, plastic fasteners, envelopes etc., and paper clips, rubber bands etc. were removed. All materials were re-housed in acid-free folders where appropriate. Duplicates were weeded.
As much as possible, the original arrangement of the files was maintained. Materials under one subject matter - e.g. Field Projects - were gathered and re-housed together, in a chronological order where the date was known.
Cultural context
Topical
- Aeronautics in meteorology
- Aircraft accidents--Investigation--United States
- Atmosphere--Research
- Atmospheric turbulence
- Climate--observations
- Cloud physics
- Earth science instruments
- Earth sciences
- Fieldwork
- Hailstorms
- Meteorological stations
- Meteorology in aeronautics
- National Center for Atmospheric Research (U.S.)
- Nowcasting (Meteorology)
- Precipitation variability
- Wind forecasting
- Title
- Research Application Laboratory (RAL) Records
- Author
- Dirk Bos
- Date
- November 2018
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- This collection was processed with support from the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics.
Repository Details
Part of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Archives Repository