March 15, 2006 (Vol. 26, No. 6)
URL:
http://https://www.fin.ucar.edu/ucardil/default.jsp
Rating:
Strong Points: Variety of pictures available
Weak Points: Unfocused
Summary:
The acronym here is for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Self described as a “non-profit consortium of over 100 university members and affiliates, founded in 1960 to enhance the capabilities of the universities and to focus on scientific problems that are beyond the scale of a single university,” UCAR is a massive effort and one of its products (for Web fans) is an outstanding digital image library covering atmospheric phenomena, pollution, clouds, field projects, and more. Images are stored in a searchable database and also, can be accessed by selecting one of seventeen categories assigned to the images. The pix include high-quality photographs and educational illustrations that will likely make it to many a classroom. Though the collection is a bit unfocused and could be more extensive, there is a lot here to like.
