Oppose Transfer of NCAR Supercomputer to Third-Party Vendor

I urge you to oppose any plan to transfer stewardship of the National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputer to a third-party vendor. This critical infrastructure must remain under NCAR's management to preserve the center's role as the nation's hub for atmospheric science research. Since 1960, NCAR has served as an intellectual center and community resource for atmospheric sciences, addressing research challenges that individual universities cannot pursue independently. The center is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of 129 North American colleges and universities. This unique structure as a federally funded research and development center has enabled NCAR to function as what scientists describe as the "beating heart" and "global mother ship" of atmospheric science. The supercomputer is integral to NCAR's mission. More than 600 visitors from 165 institutions across 37 states and 23 countries traveled to NCAR in fiscal year 2025. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model has 39,000 registered users worldwide. NCAR's Community Earth System Model architecture was used by the Department of Energy to build the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, which won the Gordon Bell Prize in 2023. Transferring the supercomputer would sever this computational infrastructure from the collaborative environment that makes NCAR effective. Private sector scientists also depend on NCAR's computational tools. The Weather Company became an early adopter of NCAR's Model for Prediction Across Scales, and in January the National Weather Service announced plans to adopt MPAS for its next-generation flagship US weather forecasting model. Disrupting NCAR's integrated research environment would undermine decades of investment in atmospheric science infrastructure. I ask you to ensure that NCAR's supercomputer remains under the center's stewardship, preserving the collaborative research environment that serves universities, government agencies, and the private sector nationwide.