(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) Supercomputing

[JUNE-2022]

Supercomputing

Atmospheric modelling relies greatly on the high-performance computing resources supported by supercomputers. Supercomputers allow calculation of over thousands of processors parallelly.
A software called the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) has been developed to provide a framework for combining Earth System Models with flexible complexity. The developers received the Heinz Billing Award for the Advancement of Scientific Computation in 2005.
With increasing knowledge resulting in more complex models, more powerful computers are being developed. Building up and maintaining such resources is a huge task and therefore, many users and organisations have started opting for the on-demand resources in pay-as-you-go mode through cloud computing. The need for more powerful computers and progress in scientific understanding and, therefore, in the models is continuous. The world’s most powerful supercomputers are in the US, Europe, China and Japan.
The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), an initiative of the Government of India announced in 2015, aims to boost indigenous efforts toward supercomputing capabilities in the nation to boost research and developments.
More recently in 2022, Param Pravega with a total supercomputing capacity of 3.3 petaflops, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the country, was installed at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru under the NSM. With several supercomputers coming up under NSM, India is evolving fast to join the ranks of frontrunners on the global map. Installation of supercomputers at premier institutions in India will substantially enhance the capability to pursue earth system modelling, besides other frontline research and applications.