The UK’s national meteorological service, the Med Office, announced today that it has partnered with Microsoft to build the world’s most powerful weather supercomputer. The project has $ 1.2 billion in funding from the British government and the supercomputer is expected to be operational by the summer of 2022.
Currently, the Meteorological Office has a supercomputing system Called the Gray XC40, Capable of performing calculations of more than 14,000 trillion per second and 24 petabytes for 2 petabytes of memory and data storage.
Accordingly With the company, The new supercomputer will be twice as powerful as the Gray XC40. The data generated will allow the Meteorological Office to provide weather forecasts, especially in relation to the country’s population and infrastructure, hazardous conditions such as storms, floods or snowfall.
The organization will also play a key role in developing the models, which will help identify experts to mitigate the effects of climate change.
According to Kwazi Quarteng, the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, the new supercomputer will act as a “catalyst” for the country’s economy, allowing it to create new jobs and implement innovative technologies. British Science Minister Amanda Solowe reinforces that the organization will help solve key climate issues that are not yet answered by the scientific community.
The supercomputer is located in the south of the United Kingdom and is 100% “powered” by renewable energy. According to the Meteorological Office, the system is expected to store more than seven tonnes of CO2 in its first year.
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