Europe's weather forecast improves with IBM

Power6-based supercomputers to predict European storm and flood damage

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is to upgrade its high performance computing facility in Reading with two of the latest IBM supercomputers this year.

The centre runs global numerical weather prediction models based on satellite information. These systems, which process massive amounts of data, can combat the effects of climate change by providing early warnings of severe weather such as storm surges and floods in Europe.

IBM will provide two clustered supercomputers based on its Power6 processors. Each has a potential peak processing performance of about 145 Teraflops – 1,000,000,000,000 operations per second.

Combined, the two computers will deliver around five times more number crunching power than the ECMWF’s current systems, allowing more complex forecasts to be compiled in less time.

The ECMWF plans to double its system performance again in 2011 when it will upgrade to IBM’s high performance computing technologies.