High-Performance Computing and GFDL Research

John Sheldon & Brian Gross
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory / OAR

NOAA's ability to conduct leading edge research in climate, oceanography, and weather has benefitted tremendously from recent improvements in GFDL's High-Performance Computing System. The HPCS provides high-performance computing, capabilities for data management and archiving, analysis and visualization of model results, and networking and telecommunications in order to advance the lab's research programs and support research collaborations within NOAA and with other government agencies. The new system will help GFDL achieve it's goal of expanding the scientific understanding of the physical processes that govern the behavior of the atmosphere and the oceans as complex fluid systems.

Concurrent with the upgrade to the computer systems, GFDL is also undertaking a major effort to develop a shared software infrastructure for the construction of climate models and model components for parallel computers. The result of this software modernization effort is the GFDL Flexible Modeling System (FMS). Because vigorous external collaborations are so fundamental to the scientific success of GFDL, the external dissemination of models and numerical modeling tools that are developed at GFDL is an essential element of GFDL's current and future mission. For these reasons, GFDL will be moving to make the software and documentation in the FMS repository publicly available.

Among the research objectives for which the HPCS and FMS will be used are: developing the next-generation GFDL coupled research model using more realistic physics, higher resolution, and full ocean-atmosphere-soil coupling; evaluating its skill for seasonal-interannual climate prediction and its use in analyzing the processes controlling El-Niņo-Southern- Oscillation events; identifying and evaluating sources of climate "drift" in long-running, high resolution, coupled climate models; investigating the effects of the deep ocean circulation on model behavior; improving regional projections of climate change; and developing a more advanced GFDL Hurricane Prediction System.

The poster session will include: (1) a poster describing GFDL's new computer system and various visualizations of research results; (2) a poster describing GFDL's modeling infrastructure development effort, known as FMS; and (3) a PowerPoint presentation covering these topics and including animations of high-resolution cyclone evolution, an eddy- resolving ocean simulation, an FMS-based atmospheric model experiment, and results from the new GFDL coupled hurricane model.

BIO - John Sheldon Former member of GFDL's Mesoscale Dynamics group, pioneered high-end visualization and common data formats for GFDL before becoming manager of the Laboratory's Technical Services Group. MS Meteorology, MIT. Brian Gross: Also a former member of GFDL's Mesoscale Dynamics group, led the procurement team that selected GFDL's new High Performance Computing System, and is now coordinating project work on GFDL's new Flexible Modeling System. PhD, University of Colorado.

Science Center Exhibit/Demo Wednesday - 3:10 - 4:10 P.M. Other demo times will be posted at the exhibit.