Debian Cluster Replaces Supercomputer For Weather Forecasting

wazza brings us a story about the Philippine government's weather service (PAGASA), which has recently used an eight-PC Debian cluster to replace an SGI supercomputer. The system processes data from local sources and the Global Telecommunication System, and it has reduced monthly operational costs by a factor of 20. Quoting: "'We tried several Linux flavours, including Red Hat, Mandrake, Fedora etc,' said Alan Pineda, head of ICT and flood forecasting at PAGASA. 'It doesn't make a dent in our budget; it's very negligible.' Pineda said PAGASA also wanted to implement a system which is very scalable. All of the equipment used for PICWIN's data gathering comes off-the-shelf, including laptops and mobile phones to transmit weather data such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, cloud formation and atmospheric pressure from field stations via SMS into PAGASA's central database."

Comments

Re:Where is...

[palegray.net]

You've got it all wrong; you should be using built-in tools like these:

more weather - For when you need a new update.

less weather - Got too much weather? Reduce it!

vi weather - When you want to change the weather.

emacs weather - When you want to change the weather on 15 separate planets at once.

cat weather - It's raining... oh, never mind.