New Supercomputer to Track Climate Change
By David Worthington | Published April 15, 2005, 6:47 PM
IBM has announced that the University of Colorado, in cooperation with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), has acquired a Blue Gene supercomputer to simulate the ocean, predict the weather and analyze other complex climate phenomena that may affect climate change and cause ripple effects in the global economy.
Now that intergovernmental panels have charged the scientific community with the colossal task of examining the origin behind the accelerating pace of climate change -- whether it be the Earth's organic rhythms, the fingerprint of mankind or both -- scientists are increasingly turning to the most cutting-edge technology.
Scientists at NCAR will use Blue Gene to research and model global climate change, weather prediction, wildfires and geoturbulence, among other major areas of interest, according to IBM.
"Climate change research is one policy-relevant field driving a need for more powerful computers to process complicated models of the Earth system," says NCAR director Tim Killeen. "Improving weather forecasts, predicting toxic pollution flows, and space weather are other areas where faster, more efficient supercomputers like Blue Gene are essential for U.S. scientists to remain in the forefront of Earth science research."
IBM's Blue Gene systems are presently the world's fastest supercomputers, achieving a peak performance of 5.7 teraflops (TF) per single rack system. Each rack occupies one square meter and energy consumption is reduced from previous IBM systems.
BlueGene/L was introduced in October of 2004 and displayed Earth Simulator for the top spot on the Top 500 list of supercomputers. Big Blue recently surpassed the 100-teraflop mark when it developed the world's most powerful supercomputer for the United States National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
For perspective, CRAY 1, the original supercomputer, maxed out at 133 megaflops. A megaflop is equivalent to one million instructions per second; a teraflop is equivalent to a trillion operations per second.
Due to its comparatively low energy consumption and compact dimensions, IBM has begun targeting commercial disciplines with a computing on demand program powered by Blue Gene technology. The program leases out heavy computing power without passing on the high costs required for actual ownership.
Or in other words, isn't it such a shame that the world's largest polluters and contibutors towards global warming - Yes the good old U.S.A. - will not sign up to take drastic action in reducing the world destroying pollution. But never mind we can buy a super computer to monitor the results of our inaction! BIG DEAL!
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|the big deal is we can now use this to help prevent such disasters. we can now better find what we need to do to prevent them, cost effectively. no company is going to want to make itself go out of business b/c its not being environmentally safe. that's just the way we humans are. all of us contribute to global warming in some way or another. and its up to ALL of us to find a solution. everyone in the world, not just Americans.
instead of sitting there, pointing fingers, why not go out and do something about it?
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|Thats the answer - bury our heads in the sand...again!
Sign the Kyoto treaty like all the other countries, whose businesses etc suffer unless they become environmently friendly.
Ever thought how many disasters would not even occur if we took action. The rest of the world is already taking action!
Typical Americans - pass the buck on to everyone else! A President scared to take the actions necessary! A Congress and senators scared to upset the electorate!
PATHETIC!
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|Yeah get our weather forcasts right!
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|Just saw an article... saying that if the budget as it stands now was approved, it could result in serious cuts in warning times for severe storms, etc.
Basically, the U.S. government has to decide what's more important: the safety of Americans or saving a few dollars at the National Weather Service and NOAA's expense.
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|http://www.betanews.com/...igital_Music/1113501086
When I wrote "Revolutionize This" I was unaware of the news about IBM's supercomputer but essentially it was that kind of supercomputer news I had in mind. Thank god - thank you.
WKMahler
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