United Kingdom’s weather service, The Met Office announced on Monday that it will invest £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) to acquire the world’s most powerful weather supercomputer, it will cost 10 times more than the current Cray XC40 but will help in delivering faster and accurate forecasts.
Met says that the supercomputer will create a “digital twin” of our atmosphere with data like wind speeds, air temperatures and pressures, and more. It will create forecasts down to an area just 1,000 meters (.62 miles) across compared to 10 km (6.2 miles) currently.
At large Airports it will reduce the focus down to just 300m, or about 1,000 feet. When it will be deployed in service it will also help emergency workers to deploy mobile flood barriers, balance the energy grid and more.
Professor Penny Endersby, Met Office Chief Executive said: “This investment will ultimately provide earlier more accurate warning of severe weather, the information needed to build a more resilient world in a changing climate and help support the transition to a low carbon economy across the UK.”
The first stage installation will be in service in 2022 and will be six times powerful than the Cray XC40 that will retire in 2022. According to the announcement, the new Supercomputer will be upgraded by three times in five years after its deployment to bump performance by a further three times, making it nearly 20 times more powerful.
Met still has to announce which supercomputer it will be acquiring as its the largest ever investment made by Met in history.
