Climate modeling of tomorrow will feature precision and scale only imagined just a few years ago, say researchers David Erickson and John Drake of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL)
Computer Science and Mathematics Division.
Tremendous computational capabilities at ORNL's Leadership Computing Facility, combined with other software tools, now make it possible for researchers to create models that take into account the complete carbon cycle, terrestrial biology, El Ninos, and hundreds of other factors. The goal is to provide what scientists call a fully integrated Earth system model that can be
simulated every 15 minutes for centuries.
"Before, we had to make compromises that ultimately limited the resolution and scope of our models and subsequent predictions," said Drake, who noted that climate modeling is an enormous multi-agency effort. "Now, using what we have learned and with computing power exceeding 50 teraflops, we can make our models far more sophisticated."
Drake, Erickson and other researchers from ORNL are working with colleagues at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NASA, Duke University, Georgia Tech and national labs across the country to develop a climate end station.
The primary objective of the station will be to upgrade and maintain the Community Climate Systems Model, which has already been used to generate almost 12,000 climate simulations.
"The upgraded model will incorporate the most recent atmospheric, oceanic and glacial ice data as well as improved chemistry, biology and physics," Drake said. "The new model will have the resolution capacity necessary to make conjectures about regional climate change, a capability that until now has been limited primarily by inadequate computational resources."
