New Supercomputer for Weather Forecasting
Union Earth
Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju announced that India will unveil its new 18
petaFLOP supercomputer for weather forecasting institutes later this year. The
minister made this announcement after a visit to the ministry's National Centre
for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) in Noida.
India is going to
launch its brand new 18 petaFLOP supercomputer by the end of year 2023. It will
be used for weather forecasting institutes in the country.
About the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting
(NCMRWF) -
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NCMRWF
is a Centre of Excellence in Weather and Climate Modelling under the Ministry
of Earth Sciences.
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Established
in 1988, NCMRWF is located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
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It
serves as the national centre for generating weather forecasts at medium-range
timescales, typically up to 10 days in advance.
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Objective — To provide medium-range weather forecasts and
related services to various users, including meteorological departments,
government agencies, and other stakeholders.
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Other Functions — NCMRWF also conducts research in various areas
related to weather and climate. This includes studies on monsoon dynamics,
severe weather events, climate change, climate modelling, and the development
of advanced forecasting techniques and tools.
What are FLOPs in computing?
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FLOPs
stands for "Floating Point Operations per Second.”
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It is a
measure of computing performance that quantifies the number of floating-point
operations a computer system can perform in one second. Floating-point
operations are a certain kind of mathematical calculation using real numbers
with fractional parts.
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It is
especially used to measure the performance in the field of high-performance
computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI).
How many FLOPs can a computer achieve?
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Modern
computing systems, such as CPUs (Central Processing Units) and GPUs (Graphics
Processing Units), are designed to perform multiple operations simultaneously,
using parallel processing techniques.
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The
parallelism significantly increases the number of FLOPs a system can achieve
within a given time frame.
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Over
the years, hardware has become more efficient, exponentially increasing
computing power.
What is a petaFLOP?
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Present-day
computers hold significantly great computing powers.
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Thus,
the metric of FLOPs is often denoted in giga (billions), tera (trillions), or
PETA (quadrillions) of operations per second.
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Metric
value of petaFLOP — A petaFLOP equals a thousand TFLOPs. One can also say that
a petaFLOP is equal to 1015 FLOPs.
Are FLOPs the only metric to judge a computer’s performance?
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FLOPs
is not the only factor determining the performance of a computing system.
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Memory
bandwidth, latency, and other architectural features also play significant
roles.
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However,
FLOPs provide a valuable baseline for comparing the computational capabilities
of different systems, especially in tasks where floating-point calculations
dominate.
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Is
India already using petaFLOPs computers for weather forecasting?
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The
NCMRWF houses ‘Mihir’, a 2.8 petaflop supercomputer, while the Indian Institute
of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, is home to ‘Pratyush’, a 4.0 petaflop
supercomputer. These were launched in 2018.
Benefits of the new supercomputer -
Improved Weather Forecasting —
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With
its immense computational power, the supercomputer can process vast amounts of
meteorological data, enabling more accurate and detailed weather forecasts.
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It can
handle complex models and simulations that take into account various
atmospheric variables, ocean currents, land features etc., resulting in more
reliable predictions.
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The new
supercomputer is expected to improve weather forecasts at the block level.
Early Warning Systems —
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By
rapidly analysing real-time data and running high-resolution models, it is
expected to predict cyclones with more accuracy and better lead time.
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Lead
time is the difference between a phenomenon being forecast and actually
occurring.
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Timely
and accurate weather information plays a crucial role in disaster management.
Better resolution —
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Presently,
the existing system give forecasts with a 12-kilometre resolution. The new
supercomputer will improve it to six-kilometre resolution.
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The
government’s aim is to achieve one-kilometre resolution forecasts.
Other benefits —
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It is
expected to provide ocean state forecasts, including marine water quality
forecasts.
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It can
contribute to climate modelling efforts, enabling scientists to study long-term
climate trends, assess the impact of human activities, and explore potential
future scenarios.
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Weather
conditions greatly influence agricultural productivity. Hence, it will help in
agricultural planning.