Mission
The Center for Environmental Technology (CET) develops innovative observing systems for environmental applications. These advanced environmental sensors are used by governments, industry, and academia. CET provides expertise for the development of new in situ and remote sensing concepts and systems through cross-linkages with faculty across the CU campus and collaborators within the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). CET also provides a critically needed training ground for the next generation of environmental sensor engineers and observational scientists.
History
CET was established in 2006 within the College of Engineering of the University of Colorado at Boulder in cooperation with NOAA. The concept for CET was originally proposed by CIRES Fellows Professor Susan Avery and Dr. Mike Hardesty in a 2004 white paper, based on the Joint Institute Model used at other research centers across the nation. The 2005 consolidation of the Boulder NOAA Research Laboratories provided the opportunity to establish such a technology-driven research program at CU. CET's organizational structure and physical proximity to ESRL allow it to be responsive to the technology needs of both ESRL and other NOAA line offices .
The director of CET is Professor Al Gasiewski, former Chief of the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory Microwave Systems Development Division.
Sponsors
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
- University of Colorado (CU) College of Engineering
- Department of Energy (DoE)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- NASA-NOAA-DoD Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL)
- NOAA Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS)
- NPOESS Integrated Program Office
Collaborators
- Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. (AER)
- Boulder Environmental Sciences and Technology (BEST)
- Colorado State University (CSU)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- CU Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV)
- Yankee Environmental Systems, Inc. (YES)
- Various international consortia (e.g., GEO)
- Additional University of Colorado research units, including CIRES, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC) (formerly PAOS)
