HPC Climate modelling
Weathering well
Gemma Church finds out how scientists are using HPC to
Swansea University’s Mike Barnsley Centre
for Climate Research recently unveiled its
predict climate and weather more accurately and efficiently.
aptly-named Blue Ice supercomputer, which
will aid research into understanding the
impact of environmental changes, such as
T
he planet’s changing climate and climate. Thanks to dedicated centres popping rising sea levels and melting glaciers and ice
freaky weather is hitting the headlines up all over the globe, scientists can at last sheets.
more and more these days. Hurricane run simulations that will find the most likely The main area of expertise is
Katrina, Antarctica’s increasing temperature answer to how a hurricane hitting the US environmental modelling, as Professor Tavi
– and even floods in north Cornwall in East coast will affect its landscape, how an ice Murray, scientific director of the centre,
the UK – show that, not only can Earth’s sheet melts, or even look thousands of years explains: ‘We are aiming to model a wide
weather be erratic, it can be devastating. into the past to pinpoint the planet’s previous variety of environmental systems, such as the
But how can you predict the unpredictable? environmental changes. ice itself and the coupling between the ice,
Simulations of any weather system must take water and the atmosphere.’
into account a massive number of variables Chilling times This is where the high-powered HPC
and contributing factors, making such In the popular imagination, ‘climate change’ resource helps, as Murray adds: ‘There
modelling seemingly impossible. Or so it was often conjures up an image of a polar bear
until a few years ago. clinging onto a melting chunk of ice. Visualisation set-up at the Mike Barnsley
As supercomputing improved, so did its Modelling the Earth’s ice sheets is a major Centre for Climate Research; five DCV
ability to handle the swarms of data needed concern for two facilities in the west of the workstations and four CUBE displays provide
to produce meaningful models of the Earth’s UK. the visualisation capabilities.
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SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD february/march 2009 www.scientific-computing.com
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