New WX Supercomputer

[dfw_pilot]

Interesting article about NOAA's latest supercomputer to catch up to the modeling and computer prowess of the EU.

Supercomputer quietly puts U.S. weather resources back on top

Even at 3 quadrillion calculations per second however, garbage in is still garbage out. We'll see if it helps, and I'll bet it does.

[Blicj11]

Thanks for posting. It's an interesting read.

[elagache]

Dear dfw, Blick, and WeatherCat faithful,

Interesting article about NOAA's latest supercomputer to catch up to the modeling and computer prowess of the EU.

Thanks for the article. I think the computer isn't the only thing that is being changed but clearly this is an important component.

Even at 3 quadrillion calculations per second however, garbage in is still garbage out. We'll see if it helps, and I'll bet it does.

My understanding is that the GFS (the US forecasting model) is also getting an overhaul.  According to the article, it handled a recent blizzard with great accuracy.  At the moment, the GFS seems to be doing a better job than the ECMWF at forecasting northern California's weather.  Alas, I definitely don't like what it is forecasting . . . .

Oh well, . . . Edouard

[Felix]

I wonder how this one compares with the Cray Titan at Oak Ridge Labs in terms of processing power?

[xairbusdriver]

Even at 3 quadrillion calculations per second however, garbage in is still garbage out

Of course! But it will spit out he garbage so much faster, now! What we need is a fast computer to keep up with which is the fastest computer! The amazing thing is that these things are still massive compared to the human, much less a chimps, brain, but still cannot be trusted to do much more than regulate our air conditioners. Ok, maybe also some nuclear reactors... as long as there are human backups.

It's hard (for me, anyway) to compare these super computer speeds. The <Titan> claims "20+ petraflops" on their own site. <Other sites> say "16.32 petaflops" (which must be correct because it has a decimal point!). But both those numbers are on sites that seem to have been last updated in 2012! <China> claims to have one with "33.86 petaflops", as of June 2013. There are sites purporting to list the fastest computers, but they don't seem to be updated very often, either. Even the prefix for the speed seems uncertain; is it "petRa" or "peta"? Everyone <seems to agree> that a "FLOP(S)" is a quadrillion FLoating point OPerations a (S)econd. In which case, NOAA's new toy is nowhere near the Titan, and roughly a tenth as fast as China's behemoth. Still, how fast does the weather really change?
<USA TODAY 8:17 p.m. EST February 22, 2016, Doyle Rice>:

... the supercomputer is merely the 18th fastest in the U.S. and 42nd fastest in the world.

[elagache]

Dear Felix, X-Air, and WeatherCat computer "muscle car" freaks,

I wonder how this one compares with the Cray Titan at Oak Ridge Labs in terms of processing power?

There is a table at the very bottom of the article with the top 10 supercomputers.  The Oak Ridge computer is #2 in the world right now and is 3 to 4 times faster than the new computers being used for weather forecasting.

Cheers, Edouard

[xairbusdriver]

I guess "David Michaud, director of the office of central processing at the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA" didn't read the chart! He's the one I quoted in my last link. OTOH, the chart doesn't say "THE top 'x' computers"... There are two source notes at the bottom of the chart, but no links. Frankly, these known super computers may not be the fastest, anyway. If I were running a government, I probably wouldn't want the power of my computers known to every Tom, Vladimir, and Jong-un.

[Xipper]

The most recent ranked list of the Top 500 super computers:  http://www.top500.org/list/2015/11/

Of course it is fully possible that "shadow entities" exist with systems that rival the top ones on the list, we may never know.  While there are some fairly anonymous "Government" entries on the list, it doesn't necessarily account for the amount of power that goes into the Fort Meade/NSA area of "government" real estate