Major NOAA computer upgrade ahead

NOAA is about to fire the latest salvo in the global weather forecast supercomputing wars.

The computer upgrade will bring NOAA’s computing power closer to the world’s leading weather forecast modeling agencies including Europe’s European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF).

Here’s more on the upgrade from NOAA.

Two new Cray computers, an operational primary and backup, will be located in Manassas, Va., and Phoenix. The computers — each with a 12 petaflop capacity — will be operational and ready to implement model upgrades by early 2022 after a period of code migration and testing. They will replace the existing Cray and Dell systems, "Luna" and "Mars" in Reston, Va., and "Surge" and "Venus" in Orlando, Fla.

Coupled with NOAA’s research and development supercomputers in West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Colorado, which have a combined capacity of 16 petaflops, the supercomputing capacity supporting NOAA’s new operational prediction and research will be 40 petaflops.

This increase in high-performance computing will triple the capacity and double the storage and interconnect speed, allowing NOAA to unlock possibilities for better forecast model guidance through higher-resolution and more comprehensive Earth-system models, using larger ensembles, advanced physics, and improved data assimilation.

The European model remains the most accurate weather forecast model overall. Remember that raw computing power is only one element in producing accurate model forecasts. Modeling physics and data assimilation are key elements.

There is still debate as to how the weather wars are trending in the meteorological community. Time will tell if the coming computer upgrade can boost the performance and status of NOAA’s suite of forecast models.

Stay tuned.