DENVER (CN) - The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center will remain under the management of the nation's leading climate research lab in Boulder, Colorado, after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's transfer to the University of Wyoming on Monday.

Since 1950, the National Science Foundation has supported science and engineering in the U.S., including the establishment of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder in 1960.  

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which manages NCAR, sued the National Science Foundation on March 16 to block funding cuts and a plan to transfer stewardship of the supercomputer from UCAR to the University of Wyoming.

NCAR, which served 3,752 researchers last year, includes Derecho the supercomputer and Casper artificial intelligence as well as data analysis and storage systems. The center employs 800 scientists and engineers advancing not just weather modeling, but supercomputing and observational systems, driving hurricane forecasting and wildfire modeling, in support of federal agencies from the Department of Defense to NASA.

Since the federal government released its plans to move the supercomputer, UCAR reported losing several specialists including eight computational information systems lab workers who worked at the center.

In asking the court the deny the injunction, U.S. attorneys had argued the supercomputer transfer was still in planning stages, which the court lacked jurisdiction to review. Upon reviewing letters sent to UCAR by NSF employees, however, Senior U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson found "the record leaves no doubt that NSF has reached a final decision."

"Without an injunction, UCAR will have no choice but to proceed with NSF's directives to facilitate the transfer process at the expense of its regular operations," the Barack Obama appointee wrote in a 38-page opinion. "It will also continue to lose critical employees - including scientists, engineers, and systems administrators - that are essential to the continuous and proper functioning of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center."

In addition to failing to follow adequate decisionmaking process, the judge found the federal government did not provide sound reasons to back its decisions.

"Even considering the administrative record as a whole, there is no evidence that NSF has ever expressed dissatisfaction with UCAR's stewardship, identified performance deficiencies, or otherwise articulated concerns regarding UCAR's management justifying a change of this magnitude," Jackson wrote. "This omission is particularly striking given NSF's stated commitment to 'providing world-class infrastructure for weather modeling, space weather research and forecasting,' which UCAR already does."

In the lawsuit, UCAR theorized the National Science Foundation pursued cuts in tandem with efforts to pressure the state of Colorado to abandon its mail-in voting program and to pardon former Mesa County elections clerk Tina Peters. Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, pardoned Peters on May 15, citing her age and lack of criminal history rather than mounting political pressure.

Internal messages between the NSF and the Office of Management and Budget also suggested the move was driven by UCAR's support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as well as climate change policies.

Colorado sued the federal government last year, claiming moves to transfer U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama, and changes to the SNAP program were both driven by illegal retaliation over the Centennial State's positions on elections and Peters. The day UCAR filed its lawsuit, Jackson issued an injunction blocking the U.S. Department of Agriculture from forcing the state to recertify recipients of SNAP benefits as the agency had demanded.

Attorney Michael Purpura, who practices with Hueston Hennigan in Newport Beach, California, represents UCAR. Representatives for UCAR did not immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.

The U.S. Department of Justice, represented by U.S. Attorney Marianne Kies, did not immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.  

Source: Courthouse News Service