INPE Gets The New Supercomputer on October 4th.

Hello reader!

It follows one communicates published in english on the day (30/10) in the website of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) announcing that the INPE gets a new supercomputer on october 4th.

Duda Falcão

INPE Gets The New Supercomputer on October 4th.

September 30, 2010

The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) from São José dos Campos, will receive in the morning of October 4th a Supercomputer, from Cray Inc., Research and Development facility, Chipewa Falls, Wisconsin, USA.

In order to make the air and hauling transportation within the Unites States and Brazil, the supercomputer had to be dismantled and arranged into 84 containers. Five air-conditioned trucks will make the cargo between Chippewa Falls, northern part of the United States – to Miami in the southeastern and even when it gets in Brazil the transportation must go on in air-conditioned trucks at an average temperature of 10C. At the airport the cargo will be separated and joined together with 24 pallets for the transportation, a DC-10 airliner.

After landing at the airport of São José dos Campos, in the morning of October 4th, the load will pass through the IRS inspection. It is not known yet how long it will take to make all the necessary arrangements for the load nationalization. Seven trucks will make the supercomputer transportation through the Presidente Dutra road to the Weather Forecast and Climate Studies Center (CPTEC), an INPE’s facility in Cachoeira Paulista, this journey shall take about 3 hours.

The unpack of the computer volumes will start only 24 hours later its arrival at the CPTEC facilities, and it’s demanded it is done under an air-conditioned environment. The assembling of the new equipment shall start within two weeks approximately.

Shortly after the assembly, the supercomputer will be accessible, passing through a 4 week customization process period that will include an adaptation and installation of operational software, monitored by CPTEC’s operational group and support. Hence the CPTEC’s Weather forecast , climate and environmental operation models migration as well as those related to the Earth System Science Center scenery projections, shall be performed in a couple of months.

It is expected that in the beginning of 2011 this supercomputer will be working daily according to the Weather forecast and environment standards.

The New Supercomputer

With this supercomputer technology a better quality and more reliable weather forecasts can be made in advance, increasing details to 5km in the South America and 20 km in the entire globe.

Extreme events as thunderstorms, droughts, wave of heats, frosts, among others as well, will be able to be forecasted with great reliability. The environmental forecasts and quality of air will also be benefited, creating this way a better prognostic resolution, of 15 km, up to six days in advance approximately.

The new machine will be very important for the development and implementation of the Brazilian Model of the Global climate System which will assemble all elements of the Earth System (atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, vegetation, biogeochemical cycles, etc), as well their interactions and how this system has been ruined by anthropogenic actions (for example, greenhouse effect, changes in vegetation and urbanization, etc.) This effort involves many Brazilian and foreigner specialists from different institutions what represents an interdisciplinary project of climate modeling, still unprecedented among developing countries.

The new supercomputer will expand in more 50 times the INPE’s processing capacity. The current computational infrastructure has been operating in its full capacity, what has been preventing improvements already developed in areas of numerical modeling, climate change, data assimilation, chemical and aerosols, atmosphere, oceans and vegetation simulations, as well.

Source: WebSite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE)