The Trump administration said it will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions.
The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are widely used in forecasting weather events and disasters around the country, and its scientists study a broad range of topics, including air pollution, ocean currents and global warming.
But in a social media post announcing the move late on Tuesday, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, called the center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country” and said that the federal government would be “breaking up” the institution.
Mr. Vought wrote that a “comprehensive review is underway” and that “any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
USA Today first reported on the White House plans.
Scientists, meteorologists and lawmakers said the move was an attack on critical scientific research and would harm the United States.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research was originally founded to provide scientists studying Earth’s atmosphere with cutting-edge resources, such as supercomputers, that individual universities could not afford on their own. It is now widely considered a global leader in both weather and climate change research, with programs aimed at tracking severe weather events, modeling floods and understanding how solar activity affects the Earth’s atmosphere.
The center’s research has often proved useful in unexpected places, such as when its studies of downdrafts in the lower atmosphere in the 1970s and 1980s led to development of wind shear detection systems around airports that helped address the cause of hundreds of aviation accidents during that era.
The lab is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of more than 100 universities, but the vast majority of its funding comes from the federal government, through hundreds of millions of dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation, a federal agency.
Scientists said dismantling the center’s climate research would do irreparable damage to cutting-edge meteorology and advances in weather forecasting.
“It’s the beating heart of our field,” Kim Cobb, a climate scientist and the director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society wrote in a post on Bluesky. “Generations of scientists have trained there, and almost everyone I know relies on deep collaborations with NCAR scientists.”
Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, wrote on X that the institution is “quite literally our global mothership.” She said nearly everyone who researches climate and weather around the world has worked at or with NCAR.
It “supports the scientists who fly into hurricanes, the meteorologists who develop new radar technology, the physicists who envision and code new weather models, and yes — the largest community climate model in the world,” she wrote, adding, “Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.”
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Mr. Trump routinely mocks climate change as a hoax and his administration has labeled virtually all efforts to study climate change, reduce the level of dangerous greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or protect communities from the impacts of global warming as “alarmism.”
Putting the facility on the chopping block would also be an economic blow to Colorado. President Trump has feuded with Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, in recent days, calling him a “weak and pathetic man” and accusing the governor with no evidence of being “run” by Venezuelan gang members.
The dispute stems from the case of a former state election official in Colorado, Tina Peters, who was convicted of multiple felonies after she gave Mr. Trump’s supporters unauthorized access to voting machines after the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Trump has pardoned Ms. Peters, but she remains behind bars.
A senior White House official, who declined to be named, said in response to the announcement that Colorado constituents would be better served if Mr. Polis wanted to work with the president.
Governor Polis said in a statement said that the federal government has yet to inform the state of its plans. “If true, public safety is at risk and science is being attacked,” he said.
“Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science,” the governor said. “NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward, we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.”
In New Orleans, where many of the world’s top Earth science researchers are gathered for an annual meeting, Antonio Busalacchi, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operates the center, said “What we are seeing is the administration canceling the freedom of scientific thought and inquiry.”
Eric Niiler contributed reporting from New Orleans and Scott Dance contributed from New York.
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
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