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Supercomputers Race to Predict Storms
pillageplunder writes "CNN has an interesting article on how different supercomputers from around the world are working to predict large storms tracks. The 3 days it takes now has been cut in half. Cool read."
Oh wait, that's the job of the Diebold supercomputer.
If you think
I'll be impressed when I see supercomputers chasing tornadoes around Kansas in rusty pickup trucks. Not before.
lysergically yours
According to New Scientist 28/08/2004, it's a little more to do with long-term climate change, rather than predicting if you need your umbrella tomorrow in Bristol... Earthquakes and the Earth's magnetic field are also modelled too apparently...
A snip at $430 million...
No Norm, those are your safety glasses; I'll wear my own thanks...
I currently work for NOAA at a facility called GFDL. We house some of the super computers here. I currently operate and control the computers and its deffinitly a treat to be able to work with these fast machines. We have some of the worlds fastest computers here and they compete very well with the earth simulator. We also have some of the top hurricane guys working for us as well. It is good to see that the techonology that we use is getting publicity. It will inform everyone how things are done and where they get the information from.
You don't know too many scientists-turned-programmers do you? Fortran is still alive and well in scientific circles. Companies like IBM and SGI still write and optimize Fortran compilers for their newest CPUs. Even Intel recently released a major update to their P4 and Itanium2 Fortran compilers.
i) because most numerical weather codes are already written in Fortran. This means that people with the right scientific knowledge tend to be Fortran programmers, and makes porting a whole lot easier.
ii) Fortran compilers are the ones where the most work has gone into optimising the hardcore mathematical routines. Thus, the compiled code has traditionally been faster. This may no longer be true.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
You can see the current predictions by each model at any given time here:n g/at200406_model.html
http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/tracki
The NHC discussion of the model guidance for each storm is here, under 'discussion' for each storm:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
They explain why they're agreeing with or discounting each model in their overall forecasts.
Generally, it's difficult to find much prediction of hurricane tracks that doesn't come somehow from the NHC. This isn't because there aren't independent analysists, but because they try not to send mixed signals, which might lead to people not evacuating when they should. The raw information from the computer models is the closest you get to dissenting opinions, afiak.
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