Hotting up – first results from the ‘Earth Simulator’ supercomputer

The first results from British and Japanese researchers working with the world’s largest computer, the gigantic Earth Simulator supercomputer in Japan, are being showcased at a climate workshop which starts today at Cambridge University.

Professor Julia Slingo, the Director of the NCAS Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling said: “These results are very exciting. They show that, for the first time, our climate models can be run at resolutions capable of capturing severe weather events such as intense depressions, hurricanes and major rainstorms. This means that we potentially have the capability to predict whether storms, like Hurricane Isabel, will be on the increase in future”.

She added, “Importantly for the UK, we will be able to predict with more confidence increases in damaging storms and extremes of temperature, and what their regional impacts will be. They will help us to prioritise our investment in devising strategies to adapt to climate change, for example the specification of railway lines to deal with the extreme heat experienced this summer, or storm drains to cope with extreme rainfall, such as we experienced in the Autumn of 2000.”

Organised by National Institute for Environmental eScience (NIEeS) and the NERC Centres for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), the workshop provides a forum for leading British and Japanese scientists to present and discuss the on-going development of a world-class programme in ‘Earth System Modelling’.

This programme encompasses all aspects of modelling the atmosphere, oceans and ice caps through to interactions with forests and marine life. It deals with timescales from seasons to decades to several millennia, and addresses such issues as global warming, abrupt climate change, for example a shutdown of the thermohaline circulation, and the transition into and out of ice ages. The use of e-science technologies will play a major part in this event since much of the research being showcased involves the analysis of huge datasets derived from computer models using state-of-the-art platforms such as the Earth Simulator.

Key speakers at the Workshop include the Director-General of the Earth Simulator Centre in Japan and the Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg who will provide a European perspective on Earth System Modelling. Professor John Lawton, the Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, and Prof. David Wallace, Chair of the UK e-Science Steering Committee and Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University will both be attending.

Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Workshop Organiser, from the Department of Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, said: “This workshop will be the first of its kind bringing together experts from the field to present earth system modelling and discussing the first results from the ‘Earth Simulator’ computer. It will provide unprecedented insight into the global climate, which will help scientists in all environmental fields.”