We're welcomed by Raj Pandya. Blurry, but I had to include this!

Also blurry (grr). Our first stop in Jim Greenburg's chemistry lab (see "Laboratory Studies" link here).

They do controlled-atmosphere tests here. One of the current tests was to drought stress a cottonwood tree.

Jenny (SOARS protégé) tells us about her research project.

Hands-on science!

Homemade instrument. Cool.

Next visit was NCAR's Research Aviation Facility!

Cool entry rug.

We learned, among other things, that students can propose projects and Julie and Aaron will help collect the data!

First look at the NCAR Gulfstream V.

Julie starts telling us all about the G5.

Each wing has two pods. If your instrument fits into one, you save lots of time. The shapes of these pods have been vetted. If your instrument is different they have to do tests to make sure the plane will fly.

Gotta get the probe out of the slipstream if you want to sample ambient air.

We got to go inside, ~3 at a time.

Tire treads.

I missed the introduction to these instruments.

That is kitty litter and epoxy on that nose cone to simulate icing.

Looking at the other wing.

Drive up to Table Mesa / NCAR's Mesa Lab.

Group pic outside the NCAR Mesa Lab.

Close up of happy people. It's much cooler here!

After lunch we visited the VisLab.

Travis lookin' coooool.

Oh, yeah.

But this was right after lunch...

What we got to hear about.

What they use to do the visualizations.

I didn't take this through the glasses, as Kevin and Amber both thought to do.

Several visualizations were stunningly colorful.

Newest supercomputer.

Hearing about supercomputing.

I.M. Pei, larger than life.

The model of the campus design (some buildings were never built) in front of the foothills.

Pei didn't design these monastery arches. Some scientists snuck them in by paying off the construction workers. (Or something like that.)

Architecture of the building.

There is a fairly large area of self-guided tour displays...

...that you can dial a phone number to hear explanations for.

Clever use of staircase space.

And a great place to hang some sondes.

There is green space behind, including a weather trail. But there was rain every day, and it was coming in during the time we had to explore.

Raindrops.

Our various science topics always included SOARS protégé, which was very cool. Peers talking to peers about their research.

Start of the meet-and-greet between our two groups.

Meet-and-greet.

Meet-and-greet.

Then we went to get a few more bites to eat.

Um....

Alex suddenly isn't sure he really wanted the peanut butter cheese hamburger.

Peanut butter cheese mixture oozing out.

But Sam was quite happy with his spicy wings.