Having successfully overseen the acquisition and initial development of the High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER), the NCAR/HIAPER Project Office (HPO) officially closed its doors on Friday, 30 September. Effective Monday, 3 October, oversight and operations responsibility for the Gulfstream V (GV) aircraft was transferred to the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL).

In order to ensure the availability of a dedicated community liaison for the GV, Roger Wakimoto (NCAR Associate Director for EOL) has appointed William "Al" Cooper to serve as the HIAPER Chief Scientist. In this new role, Cooper will provide oversight and guidance for the ongoing development and scientific utilization of the GV and will also serve as the primary HIAPER point of contact for members of the community. Users with specific questions about HIAPER and/or about field deployments involving the GV should feel free to contact Cooper directly at either cooperw@ucar.edu or 303-497-1600. Additional points of contact within EOL for inquiries about GV field support opportunities and/or general EOL platform support capabilities are as follows:

Dr. Roger Wakimoto, NCAR Associate Director for EOL: wakimoto@ucar.edu, 303-497-2040; general inquiries regarding EOL platform and project support capabilities

Ms. Karyn Sawyer, NCAR/EOL Assistant Director: karyn@ucar.edu, 303-497-8681; general inquiries regarding EOL platform and project support capabilities

Ms. Brigitte Baeuerle, NCAR/EOL/Field Project Services (FPS) Manager: baeuerle@ucar.edu, 303-497-2061; inquiries regarding EOL field project support services

Dr. Jeff Stith, NCAR/EOL/Research Aviation Facility (RAF) Manager: stith@ucar.edu, 303-497-1032; general inquiries regarding EOL aviation support

Dr. Jorgen Jensen, NCAR/EOL/RAF Scientific Project Management Group Leader: jbj@ucar.edu, 303-497-1028; inquiries regarding EOL/RAF aircraft field project support services

Additional information about the GV availability and plans for ongoing platform development will, in future, be posted to both the EOL and the RAF web sites:

• www.eol.ucar.edu
• www.eol.ucar.edu/raf/

This HIAPER site will continue to be accessible for roughly the next year so that members of the community can continue to access various historical materials for the project (including the HIAPER Photo Gallery). Visitors to the HIAPER site will also find links to the EOL and RAF web sites in order to assist them with locating GV information of interest.

Should you have any questions about the conduct or completion of the HIAPER project itself, Dick Friesen (HIAPER Engineering Manager) and Krista Laursen will be continuing to provide HIAPER transition management assistance to EOL until 18 November. Until that time, you can continue to contact Dick and Krista as follows:

Dick Friesen, NCAR/HPO Engineering Manager: rbf@ucar.edu, 303-497-2004

Krista Laursen, NCAR/HPO Director: krista@ucar.edu, 303-497-2003

Effective 18 November, both Dick and Krista will end their formal affiliation with the HIAPER program.

All of us here in the HPO would like to conclude this message by saying that it has been our pleasure and privilege to serve NCAR, UCAR, NSF, and the community over the course of the HIAPER project. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get to work on a program that represents the culmination of nearly 20 years of planning and dreaming on the part of the atmospheric sciences community, and we consider ourselves fortunate indeed to have worked with all of you to make the GV a reality. We wish each of you the very best of luck for the exciting research endeavors to be undertaken with the GV in the many years to come.

With best regards,

Krista Laursen, HPO Director
Dick Friesen, HPO Engineering Manager
Carla Hassler, HPO Administrative Assistant
Pat Munson, UCAR and HPO Contracts Administrator
Geoff Cheeseman, HPO and EOL Budget Analyst
Jen Oxelson, UOP/Unidata and HPO Webmaster

HPO staff members, from left to right: Carla Hassler, Pat Munson, Dick Friesen, Krista Laursen, Jen Oxelson, and Geoff Cheeseman.