New high-performance computer

On Tuesday (12 November 2024), Science Minister Martin Polaschek and the Scientific Director General of GeoSphere Austria Andreas Schaffhauser presented GeoSphere Austria's new high-performance computer at the Hohe Warte in Vienna.

GeoSphere Austria put a new high-performance computer into operation in autumn 2024. Areas of application include state crisis preparedness, forecasts and warnings in the event of extreme weather events, modelling of urban climate scenarios, air quality calculations and forecasts for renewable forms of energy.

GeoSphere Austria's new HPE Cray- XD2000 high-performance computer performs up to around 870 billion computing operations per second, making it around 1.7 times more powerful than the previous high-performance computer. As a result, weather and climate models, for example, can be calculated 20 to 40 per cent faster. In addition, even more details can be taken into account, for example more measurement data and even more precise physical simulations.

Martin Polaschek, Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research: "Cutting-edge research needs cutting-edge infrastructure. As the Federal Government, we are making targeted investments in the competitiveness of our research centre. High-performance computers are indispensable for the early detection of extreme weather events and play a decisive role in protecting the population and preventing damage to infrastructure and the environment. Together with GeoSphere Austria, we have now been able to put a new high-performance computer into operation. The BMBWF is providing 2.5 million euros for this purpose.

The new high-performance computer makes it possible to predict weather phenomena even more precisely, especially in the geographically challenging Alpine region, for which detailed weather forecasts are calculated several times a day. This will enable us to predict severe weather and the threat of severe weather disasters even better. The high-performance computer also has special models that can be used for the spread of hazardous substances, for example after chemical accidents or fires. The computer thus makes a significant contribution to protecting the population and Austria's critical infrastructure."

Andreas Schaffhauser, Scientific Director General of GeoSphere Austria: "Every technological improvement increases the possibilities of modern meteorology. The more detailed the terrain and physics are simulated on the computer, the better the forecasts and warnings.

For example, we use the new high-performance computer to calculate our weather forecast models for Austria and the surrounding area at a spatial resolution of up to 1.2 kilometres and at 90 atmospheric layers. With the help of the new high-performance computer, the number of observations used in the model calculations, such as satellite, radar and aircraft data, will also be increased once again. Together with improved modelling physics, small-scale events such as severe thunderstorms can therefore be predicted more accurately.

The new high-performance computer also serves to improve the estimation of uncertainties. Although weather models are constantly improving, they are not perfect. Therefore, information about the possible range of an upcoming event is important, for example the most probable amount of rain or storm peak and the maximum possible values."

GeoSphere Austria's high-performance computer runs the following regional forecast models in operational mode in order to calculate forecasts and warnings in different forecast periods with the smallest possible spatial resolution:

AROME: Horizontal resolution of 2.5 kilometres and 90 layers in the vertical. Recalculated every three hours and provides forecasts for the extended Alpine region for the next 60 hours.

AROME-RUC (Rapid Update Cycle): Provides weather forecasts for the next twelve hours for Austria and the surrounding area at a horizontal resolution of 1.2 kilometres and 90 layers in the vertical. Recalculated every hour.

GeoSphere represents Austria at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The ECMWF operates the world's most powerful global forecasting model. GeoSphere Austria uses ECMWF data for medium-term forecasts of up to ten days, monthly forecasts and as the basis for its own high-resolution regional models, which run on the new high-performance computer. ECMWF and the national weather services thus complement each other perfectly. This enables an efficient model chain that covers all requirements.

In the event of necessary maintenance work on the high-performance computer or unforeseen disruptions in the operation of the data centre on the Hohe Warte, the entire processing chain for daily weather modelling can be transferred to the ECMWF within minutes. This ensures uninterrupted operation even in the event of unforeseen events. Due to the great importance of fail-safe production for crisis preparedness, the high-performance computer is reserved for the exclusive use of GeoSphere-Austria.

Co-operation with national and international partners is of central importance for the development of GeoSphere's weather models. The resources of the high-performance computer will also enable participation in important international research and co-operation initiatives in the future.

The high performance computer also runs special models for dispersion predictions after accidents involving chemical substances, for example, or after incidents in nuclear power plants. Air quality forecasts are also calculated, such as for ozone, particulate matter and desert dust.

These models are very computationally intensive, as they simulate a large number of chemical processes and take into account the interaction of pollutants with the weather, for example how certain particles in the air affect solar radiation as well as cloud and precipitation processes and the extent to which these particles are deposited on the ground.

GeoSphere Austria's air quality forecasting system simulates the distribution of pollutants in Europe and Austria up to 72 hours in advance twice a day.

The new high-performance computer also supports tasks within the framework of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO): GeoSphere Austria is one of ten ‘Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for nuclear Emergency Response Activities (RSMC ERA)’ of the WMO worldwide. If increased radioactivity is measured anywhere on earth or an accident has occurred in a nuclear power plant, calculations are made at GeoSphere Austria to determine where the radioactive cloud is coming from or where it is travelling to.

In the field of urban climate, the high-performance computer is used to run state-of-the-art models for predicting urban heat islands, for example. The new computer enables the rapid and detailed simulation of complex phenomena and interactions in urban areas, supports the development of sound decision-making bases and effective measures for climate change adaptation and thus contributes to resilience against climate change.

Urban climate models are complex computer programmes that calculate parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind direction and wind speed in the urban environment. The shape of the terrain and the type of development and land use (green space, agricultural land, etc.) are taken into account in great detail. For example, the consequences of urban development measures can be estimated before the start of a project.

The new high-performance computer (HPE CRAY-XD2000) is used around the clock with high availability in order to reliably guarantee maximum computing power for the forecasting models used.

The computing power is 1.7 times that of the previous system. There are now 19,200 computing cores, 100 computing nodes and 38 terabytes of working memory available with high availability. One node represents one computing point, so simultaneous computing on up to 19,200 computing cores is possible.

The theoretical peak performance is 870 gigaflops, i.e. 870 billion floating point operations per second. The entire high-performance computer is cooled by an energy-efficient water cooling system, which makes it possible to utilise the waste heat in the buildings on the Hohe Warte.

The mass storage of the new high-performance computer now features all-flash technology, which is particularly fast and energy-efficient. It should also be emphasised that around 20 percent of the waste heat from the old high-performance computer was released into the air in the server room, which led to increased cooling requirements. The cooling concept of the new high-performance computer ‘100 per cent liquid cooling’ fits in perfectly with the GeoSphere strategy of green IT in order to operate as sustainably as possible.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)