Our Working Groups

Our working groups are a mechanism for user communities to work together to highlight and resolve issues in a particular field.

They bring together a specific user community, allowing them to share expertise and experience, and allow for direct links with instrument developers and suppliers. These groups can bring problems to the manufacturers’ attention that might arise when a product is changed.

Working groups give developers the opportunity to interact with their target audience and introduce new products.

Working groups also establish best practices in both measurement and calibration and act as a dissemination point to the wider community.

Working groups can influence upward. An organised observation community has a stronger and louder voice than a single individual or university group and as such can provide guidance as to where capital investment is best targeted.

We use working groups as a feedback conduit between user communities and the facilities that the NCAS delivers on behalf of the NERC. This link means facility users can directly aid in ensuring that the particular area covered by the remit of the group is meeting the needs of the community, is meeting the highest operational standard, and is applying the most up-to-date methods to the most up-to-date instrumentation.

NCAS facility investment is strongly influenced by the recommendations of the facility steering committees and their recommendations are influenced by the activities of facility working groups.

NCAS facilitates a number of working groups in addition to those listed below. Full details of each working group’s remit and activities can be found on the dedicated National Centre for Atmospheric Science Working Groups website.