A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from transferring control of a major federal supercomputing center in Colorado from the National Center for Atmospheric Research to the University of Wyoming, handing a victory to the consortium that manages the facility.
The dispute centers on the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, a hub for climate, weather, and atmospheric research based in Boulder, Colorado. The center is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium representing 129 universities and research institutions.
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The fight began after Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought announced plans to dismantle NCAR, which he described as a source of “climate alarmism.” The administration directed the National Science Foundation to “transfer stewardship” of the supercomputer to what officials called “an appropriate operator.”
UCAR sued to stop the move, arguing the transfer would cripple the facility’s operations and trigger an exodus of highly specialized personnel.
In granting a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, agreed that the transfer posed an immediate threat.
“UCAR has made a showing of irreparable harm through the significant ‘brain drain’ that it is already experiencing as a direct result” of NSF’s attempted transfer, Jackson wrote. He warned the organization would continue to lose “critical employees — including scientists, engineers, and systems administrators — that are essential to the continuous and proper functioning” of the supercomputing center.
Jackson also criticized NSF’s decision-making process, writing that the agency “offered no explanation for its decision” and “failed to abide by its own process to consider public feedback before proceeding with the transfer.”
The judge emphasized that the case extends far beyond a dispute over management authority, noting the supercomputer’s role in forecasting severe weather and supporting scientific research nationwide.
“There is public interest in keeping the supercomputer at the lab,” Jackson wrote, because it “supports the efficient and uninterrupted data collection that supports more accurate climate-prediction modeling, which in turn is used to mitigate harmful extreme weather events that are a feature of our world.”
“Any degradation in forecasting, modeling, or related scientific capabilities carries real-world consequences, including potential harm to property and human life,” he added.
Jackson further noted that the center’s work underpins operations across both government and industry.
“The resulting loss of institutional knowledge and technical expertise would create substantial risks to the operational stability” of the facility and the forecasting systems that depend on it, he wrote. “The United States military, federal agencies, and private-sector partners rely on the work performed and data produced at the center to make critical operational decisions.”
UCAR welcomed the ruling, arguing that disrupting the center would jeopardize a wide range of services that depend on its computing power.
“Our work supports national security, public safety, and economic prosperity, and any steps made toward divesting NCAR of its high-performance computing facilities would risk disrupting the country’s extraordinary advances in weather and space weather modeling and forecasting,” UCAR Interim President Eric Barron said in a statement.
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Barron said those risks extend to programs involving agriculture, water resources, wildfire prediction, military operations, electric grid reliability, and aviation safety.
The lawsuit also alleged the administration’s actions were politically motivated. UCAR contended the effort to break up NCAR was retaliation against Colorado for resisting federal pressure on election administration and for its prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted on election-related charges and was released from prison on Monday.
