The Met Office is to replace its supercomputer infrastructure by 2009 to enable more precise weather and climate predictions.
By replacing the £27.5m NEC high-performance computer, which went live in 2005, the agency says it will be able to better predict weather events such as the Boscastle floods.
The present supercomputer calculates conditions at a grid of points across the UK four kilometres apart, but the organisation wants the new system to reduce the gap to one kilometre.
‘To do that level of calculation at the moment would simply take too much time – days and weeks,’ said Steve Foreman, the Met Office’s programme manager for IT services.
The system is part of a six-year replacement strategy. A Met Office spokesman says the present system is likely to be sold to another science organisation, but no decision has been made.
The organisation is considering a joint project with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which would provide both organisations with access to a larger computer than either could individually afford, says Foreman.
‘It would give us a lot of advantage,’ he said. ‘In a joint project you can get more for your money, but it does bring with it some difficult organisational issues of how different requirements can be met by a single machine, and who has to host and maintain it.’
Sharing supercomputers could ensure competitiveness with other countries, says Quocirca analyst Rob Bamforth.
‘The technology is now there to make that kind of shared resource very possible and it is something the Met Office could take a leading role in,’ he said.
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