Towards Ultra-High Resolution Models of Climate and Weather

We present a speculative extrapolation of the performance aspects of an atmospheric general circulation model to ultra-high resolution and describe alternative technological paths to realize integration of such a model in the relatively near future. Due to a superlinear scaling of the computational burden dictated by stability criterion, the solution of the equations of motion dominate the calculation at ultra-high resolutions. From this extrapolation, it is estimated that a credible kilometer scale atmospheric model would require at least a sustained ten petaflop computer to provide scientifically useful climate simulations. Our design study portends an alternate strategy for practical power-efficient implementations of petaflop scale systems. Embedded processor technology could be exploited to tailor a custom machine designed to ultra-high climate model specifications at relatively affordable cost and power considerations. The major conceptual changes required by a kilometer scale c...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: IJHPCA
• Authors: Michael F. Wehner, Leonid Oliker, John Shalf
• Keywords: Credible Kilometer Scale, IJHPCA 2008, Kilometer Scale, Kilometer Scale Climate