The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Colorado State
University (CSU) established the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)
in 1980. Among NOAA's contributions to this joint research program was the transfer of a
small cadre of federal scientists to CSU's Foothills Campus in Fort Collins, CO. Over the
years this group has been fortified by a growing number of CSU employed
scientists-meteorologists. This organization is now known as the Regional and Mesoscale
Meteorology (RAMM) Team of NOAA and CIRA, and numbers over a dozen scientists and
technicians.
Activities at RAMM-CIRA are concentrated upon developing a thorough understanding of
atmospheric processes, particularly those which initiate and evolve on the meso- or
regional-scale. A primary goal is effectively transferring important discoveries and
analytical tools to operational forecasters and fellow environmental research scientists.
Information from a wide variety of meteorological satellites, generously supplemented by
many complementary environmental data collection resources, are utilized to promote
these objectives.
