Supercomputer is put to work
Baku, October 19 (AZERTAC). One of the world’s fastest supercomputers is now at work producing some of the highest-resolution modeling yet of everything from weather and climate to energy resources and the ways in which wildfires burn under varying conditions.
The new National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputer, called Yellowstone, is almost 30 times more powerful and substantially replaces its predecessor at NCAR’s Mesa Lab in Boulder, Colo.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday formally inaugurated the $30 million machine, which was developed by IBM and ranks among the world’s top 20 fastest. Located on the high plains just west of Cheyenne, it’s thought to be the world’s fastest computer dedicated solely to earth sciences.
Projects already using Yellowstone will result in three-dimensional, high-resolution modeling of the Earth’s crust, ocean turbulence, cumulus clouds, air pollution and solar magnetism.
Long-term, the computer will help water managers make better decisions and bridge the gap between weather forecasts and seasonal climate outlooks, said Thomas Bogdan, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which manages NCAR on behalf of the National Science Foundation.
“Knowledge of the future helps us to make better decisions so we can profit and remain safe,” Bogdan said.
The machine successfully cleared three months of installation and testing in early October and was put to use for real research soon after, NCAR officials said.
Already a couple of projects are using of large chunks of Yellowstone’s full capacity, more than 80 percent of the facility’s processors.
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