World's first weather-predicting cloud supercomputer

Illustration: linkedin.com

On May 19, the UK Meteorological Office (Met Office) announced a new supercomputer with highly accurate forecasting capabilities.

According to the agency, the system is the world's first cloud supercomputer dedicated to weather and climate science , and is run on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform, the world's leading data center provider, which runs much of its artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The new cloud system, which has 1.8 million core processors, can perform 60 trillion calculations per second, four times more than the previous generation, according to the Met Office. This system allows for detailed forecasts up to 14 days in advance, while rainfall forecasts will also be more accurate.

The agency said one of the benefits of the new technology is improved forecasting at airports, and could provide insights for the energy industry in planning for power outages and surges in electricity demand.

Running entirely on renewable energy, the supercomputer will also improve forecasting capabilities for climate change-induced challenges such as floods and wildfires.

The launch of the new system ends the wait for new weather forecasting technology in the UK, which was originally scheduled for 2022.

In February 2020, the British government pledged £1.2 billion ($1.56 billion) to fund the project and announced plans to decommission the old supercomputers by 2022. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has stalled the project.

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VNA

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/sieu-may-tinh-dam-may-du-bao-thoi-tiet-dau-tien-tren-the-gioi-20250520091500804.htm