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The U.S. government is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, jettisoning key climate science projects in the process
Mesa Laboratory at The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
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The Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), long considered the crown jewel in the U.S.’s earth science infrastructure. Scientists who study climate, weather and other earth sciences have decried the move, first reported by USA Today, as “taking a sledgehammer” to an “iconic” center dedicated to studying our planet.
“NCAR is quite literally our global mothership,” wrote Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy, on Bluesky. “Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet. Unbelievable.”
The center, based in Boulder, Colo., has become a target because of what Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, described as “climate alarmism” in a statement to USA Today. Weather modeling and supercomputing work also done at the center will be moved to other research hubs, Vought said.
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The work to dismantle NCAR, founded in 1960, will begin immediately, USA Today reported, and will involve fully closing the center’s iconic Mesa Laboratory.
“NCAR is a unique & valuable asset—far more than a climate model, or observations, or technology, or training ground, or gathering space,” wrote climatologist Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, on Bluesky. “It covers weather, space weather, data, climate, paleo-climate, and everything in-between. [Its] building is an icon, but [its] iconic status goes far beyond that.”
The NCAR dismantling is just the latest target of a series of swings the Trump administration has taken to curtail climate change research and action, including massive cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and efforts to roll back Environmental Protection Agency rules to limit pollution.
NCAR employs about 830 people under the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a nonprofit consortium of universities and colleges. The National Science Foundation contracts with UCAR to manage NCAR and provided about half of the center’s operating budget for 2025, USA Today reported.
Editor’s Note (12/17/25): This article was edited after posting to correct the name of the Nature Conservancy.
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