Weather
Weather WisdomWeather Wisdom - Friday, September 18, 2009By Craig Koplien (WTMJ)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has completed the installation of a new, high-powered supercomputer system. The 9-year, $180 million project will substantially increase the ability of NOAA scientists, and meteorologists everywhere, to predict weather and climate.
The new computer system will give NOAA the ability to run more complex computer “models”. These models are essentially computer programs designed to predict the future state of the atmosphere. The programs use mathematical equations to approximate the physical workings of the air around us. Faster, more powerful computers mean that the programs can do more mathematical calculations than ever before, leading to more timely and accurate output. This output is key information I use every day to forecast the weather.
The new supercomputers can do 69.7 trillion calculations per second! That makes them four times faster than the previous system and 34 times faster than the most power computer in existence just 10 years ago. It would take one person with a calculator 3 millions years to do the number of calculations that the new supercomputers can do in one second!
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