Supercomputing has smashed traditional time barriers in climate modelling, progressing through improved weekly and seasonal forecasting to more confident predictions of what the weather is likely to be like in 50 years. As well as Ngamai, the bureau has access to data produced by Australias most powerful supercomputer, Raijin, at the Australian National University in Canberra. It can run at a peak speed of 1.2 petaflops, equal to 170,000 calculations for every human on Earth, every second. Andy Hogg, of the ANUs Research School of Earth Sciences, uses Ngamai to run models that incorporate even small-scale ocean currents and eddies to project how global climate will be affected in decades. Our work is underpinning the improvements in climate models that well see over the next five years, he says. Michael Hutchinson, professor of spatial and temporal analysis at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, has created landscape models that led to the discovery of hidden streams 35 metres under sand dunes in the Simpson Desert. He is using the ANUs computer to predict the destructive effects of long-term climate change on landscape, plants, animals and human infrastructure. Asked if he believes in global warming, he says. I dont believe it. I know it. Its an irrefutable scientific fact. Read more: smh.au/technology/sci-tech/how-supercomputers-predict-the-weather-20140319-350xs.html#ixzz2wUp21CcY
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 10:06:16 +0000
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