By Robert Wilhelmson, NCSA Research Scientist Severe weather affects millions of people a year. Thunderstorms that produce lightning, downbursts, hail, and tornadoes and winter storms that produce heavy snow and blizzard-like conditions can cause considerable damage and loss of life. Atmospheric scientists are continuously pursuing a better understanding of these severe events to improve weather prediction. In this effort, intense numerical modeling studies are being coupled with special observing programs.
Project is such a program.
This environment can be used to study atmospheric and fluid flows, and it can be tailored for specific scientific research and weather forecasting needs. The CRAY Y-MP system at NCSA was connected with an SGI VGX 440 on the exhibition floor where each performed different tasks. For example, the CRAY Y-MP supercomputer running Explorer handled certain model computations while the SGI VGX at the exhibit managed the user interface to model initiation and parameter changes as well as 2D and 3D graphical displays. The T3 network from the exhibition floor to NCSA supplied the communications link. In this integrated, real-time environment, data management, analysis, and visual display were tied to new model data as it became available from the executing model simulation.