Posted 9h   hours ago, updated 4h  hours ago



https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-23/australia-new-supercomputer-a-tribute-to-...

Researchers are now making use of the Australian National University's new supercomputer, Gadi, one of the most powerful of its kind and the most powerful in the southern hemisphere.
Key points:

    The artwork featured on Australia's new supercomputer is by Ngunnawal artist Lynnice Church
    With enhanced processing capabilities, Gadi offers hope for vastly improved research
    The Bureau of Meteorology hopes to use Gadi to better predict bushfire behaviour

Gadi, based at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), was unveiled this week after a few months of early operation, described by the university as a "recognised powerhouse in the global supercomputing ranking".

The supercomputer, which operates 24/7 for 360 days a year, uses the same amount of electricity as it takes to power a medium-sized suburb.


Among the more than 5,000 individuals using the supercomputer — remotely from their offices — will be researchers from the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.

Both CSIRO and Geoscience Australia will use the supercomputer to improve their systems aimed at predicting extreme weather patterns, including fires, earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones.

The CSIRO's executive director of Digital, National Facilities and Collections, Dave Williams, said having an asset like Gadi was "critical" for predicting Australia's future.

He said its computational models would contribute to the CSIRO's Decadal Climate Forecasting Project to produce "near-term" climate forecasts.

    "Gadi will enable our work in Earth sciences including climate, land, water and fire modelling," Dr Williams said.

"The data that Gadi will process and analyse is collected here on Earth as well as by an increasing number of satellites orbiting our planet."

Supercomputers are great - they can make mistakes faster than ever before. 

Bobby. wrote on Jun 23^rd, 2020 at 2:31pm:


"Both CSIRO and Geoscience Australia will use the supercomputer to improve their systems aimed at predicting extreme weather patterns, including fires, earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones."

Physicists still study gravity. We know how plants grow yet agronomy is still studied looking for new techniques.

Robot wrote on Jun 23^rd, 2020 at 2:47pm:



You mean people like Al Gore and Monk?

Jovial Monk wrote on Jun 23^rd, 2020 at 2:55pm:



David DuByne never indulged in any debate -
he just gave evidence and didn't answer questions.
That's why I stopped posting his videos as
this is a 2 way street.

dear Robot,
I notice you and your scientific contributions are most welcome.

Ajax wrote on Jul 18^th, 2020 at 9:25am:



That is true.
Still - the results from this new computer will be interesting.

lee wrote on Jul 18^th, 2020 at 4:01pm:



More processing power means that more variables can be
introduced into the equations.

lee wrote on Jul 18^th, 2020 at 4:40pm:



Let's see if they come up with anything interesting?

lee wrote on Jul 18^th, 2020 at 4:01pm:


Yeah. But if you put in the right inputs, you will come up with the right answers faster. Satellites can count how many people are walking around outside and give a rough estimation about how many people are in a region or where they are congregating. Satellites can pick up the atmospheric weather conditions of the day and be able to make rough predictions of what a week's weather forecast could be.

But, if you think a satellite can send its information to a Pentium II computer and allow the computer to run its calculations without crashing, you are sadly mistaken. Even the Spierig brothers could not make a B-grade horror movie about zombies without having their Pentium computers crash trying to make the special effects scenes.

I figure we can have the computer technicians put together a good supercomputer and let the climate researchers put together a good set of data for them to extrapolate future variable weather forecasts.