Met Office to build £97m supercomputer
Oct 29, 2014 22:32:20 GMT 10
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Post by Wes Gear on Oct 29, 2014 22:32:20 GMT 10
Met Office to build £97m supercomputer
Funding has been confirmed for a £97m supercomputer to improve the Met Office's weather forecasting and climate modelling.
The facility will work 13 times faster than the current system, enabling detailed, UK-wide forecast models with a resolution of 1.5km to be run every single hour, rather than every three.
It will be built in Exeter during 2015 and become operational next September.
The Met Office said it would deliver a "step change" in forecast accuracy.
"It will allow us to add more precision, more detail, more accuracy to our forecasts on all time scales for tomorrow, for the next day, next week, next month and even the next century," said Met Office chief executive Rob Varley.
As well as running UK-wide and global forecasting models more frequently, the new technology will allow particularly important areas to receive much more detailed assessment.
For example, forecasts of wind speeds, fog and snow showers could be delivered for major airports, with a spatial resolution of 300m.
It makes us world leaders not only in talking about the weather, but forecasting it too”
Greg Clark, MP Minister for Universities and Science
The extra capacity will also be useful for climate scientists, who need massive amounts of computing power to run detailed models over much longer time scales.
It will address one of the key challenges of climate projections - to "answer the real questions people need to know", said Mr Varley.
"We can tell you that the global average temperature is going to increase by 3C or 4C if we carry on as we are - but the critical question is what is that going to mean for London?
"What is it going to mean for Scotland? What is it going to mean for my back garden? At the moment the general looks that we can produce really don't answer those kinds of questions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
line
Analysis by David Shukman, BBC Science Editor
For an island nation that sits at a turbulent cross-roads between Atlantic moisture, Arctic cold and continental extremes, our weather is notoriously hard to forecast. Fickle winds, complicated topography and innumerable local influences add to the challenge.
link
Funding has been confirmed for a £97m supercomputer to improve the Met Office's weather forecasting and climate modelling.
The facility will work 13 times faster than the current system, enabling detailed, UK-wide forecast models with a resolution of 1.5km to be run every single hour, rather than every three.
It will be built in Exeter during 2015 and become operational next September.
The Met Office said it would deliver a "step change" in forecast accuracy.
"It will allow us to add more precision, more detail, more accuracy to our forecasts on all time scales for tomorrow, for the next day, next week, next month and even the next century," said Met Office chief executive Rob Varley.
As well as running UK-wide and global forecasting models more frequently, the new technology will allow particularly important areas to receive much more detailed assessment.
For example, forecasts of wind speeds, fog and snow showers could be delivered for major airports, with a spatial resolution of 300m.
It makes us world leaders not only in talking about the weather, but forecasting it too”
Greg Clark, MP Minister for Universities and Science
The extra capacity will also be useful for climate scientists, who need massive amounts of computing power to run detailed models over much longer time scales.
It will address one of the key challenges of climate projections - to "answer the real questions people need to know", said Mr Varley.
"We can tell you that the global average temperature is going to increase by 3C or 4C if we carry on as we are - but the critical question is what is that going to mean for London?
"What is it going to mean for Scotland? What is it going to mean for my back garden? At the moment the general looks that we can produce really don't answer those kinds of questions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
line
Analysis by David Shukman, BBC Science Editor
For an island nation that sits at a turbulent cross-roads between Atlantic moisture, Arctic cold and continental extremes, our weather is notoriously hard to forecast. Fickle winds, complicated topography and innumerable local influences add to the challenge.