Wednesday 21 June 2017

IBM Supercomputers Will Power Global Weather Forecasts


 It will help create models that explore the world, but are predicted locally.

IBM supercomputers could soon turn on tomorrow's weather forecasting systems. Through its subsidiary The Weather Company, the computer titan has partnered with the University Corporation for Academic Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to go beyond the current regional forecast to anticipate Climate at the local level ... And aspire to introduce the first model that covers the whole globe.

Current technology provides for large-scale weather systems that influence the regional climate, such as snowstorms and hurricanes. The model this collaboration IBM wants to build would explain the influence that smaller events (such as storms) have on the local climate. IBM will join UCAR to co-design a computing solution running on POWER9's previous systems, which are slated to be launched later this year. The Weather Company will use this data center to adapt NCAR's community climate model to a global scale and refine longer-term forecasts to make accurate forecasts for weeks or months.