NSF Gives Supercomputer Time For 3-D Model of Spill

CWmike writes "Scientists have embarked on a crash effort to use one the world's largest supercomputers to create 3-D models to simulate how BP's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill will affect coastal areas. Acting within 24 hours of receiving a request from researchers, the National Science Foundation late last week made an emergency allocation of 1 million compute hours on a supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to study how BP's gusher will affect coastlines. The computer model they are working on 'has the potential to advise and undergird many emergency management decisions that may be made along the way, particularly if a hurricane comes through the area,' said Rick Luettich, a professor of marine sciences and head of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who is one of the researchers on this project. Meanwhile, geographic information systems vendor ESRI has added a social spin to GIS mapping of the BP oil spill."

Comments

Re:Offtopic

[Pojut]

The government should hire all they can to contain and control the situation

They already have (and have had) a page set up specifically for this.

and make BP pay for it, since BP won't act on their own to minimize profits damages instead of environmental damages.

They are trying to, but many Republicans are blocking legislation to raise or remove the liability cap.

Re:Um...

[confused one]

The models might actually be a good way to verify the estimates. Is it 5,000 barrels a day (not) or 30,000-70,000 barrels (within the realm of possibility). We know it's not 5,000 because they're pumping it out now at 5,000 (with the 4" pipe the inserted into the riser) and they haven't had much effect on the outflow.

Compute Hours?

[adbge]

For those unfamiliar with a "compute hour", the supercomputer in question is capable of 63,000 compute hours per hour. To put this into perspective, the NSF seems to have allocated about 15 hours of supercomputer time to this project. 15 hours is, of course, not nearly as sensational as 1 million compute hours. ;)

Re:In Time?

[squidfood]

I don't know about the GOM specifically, but models of oceanography of most regions around the U.S. have been under development, availability, testing, and use for quite a while, and substantial toolkits exist, so it's just a matter of putting some fluid of the right density in the right place and getting present starting conditions. The crunch is really getting the computer time to run the models which is what the new money addresses.

And yes, there's also a lot of graphical toolboxes so whipping together a quick display isn't B-movie territory (though using VB is contraindicated: Xwindows and fortran are preferred).

Re:Offtopic

[Anonymous Coward]

Proper fucking booming would've been a good start.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/11/865387/-Fishgrease:-DKos-Booming-School

Re:In Time?

[Bill Barth]

The code in question (ADCIRC) has been used for years to do hurricane storm surge simulations. It's being continuously developed for work in the Gulf of Mexico and already includes contaminant transport effects. Also, as with all things scientific, "right" is a relative quantity. The better question is whether or not useful predictions can be made that are better than what's been done so far. I think the answer to that is a resounding "Yes!" Finally, I guarantee that this event will be used by modelers to refine and improve their codes for years to come. Recent hurricances (Ike, Rita, Gustav, etc.) have been used in the very same way.