The New Supercomputer
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Imagine if your home computer had 2 processors instead of one. How about 20 processors. How about 786 processors. That's the idea behind the newest computer used by the National Weather Service for daily weather forecasts. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook.

IBM RS/6000's fill a room at the US Department of Commerce Census Computer Center Bowie, MD.

The machine is an IBM RS/6000 supercomputer in Suitland, Maryland. It's the only computer in the country that does this type of forecasting. Just how powerful is it? Well, it has all it's processors working side by side and in parallel, which means the virtual atmosphere can be split into many pieces and each processor can take on a tiny part of the job. The new computer processes data at a rate of 690 billion instructions per second and with upgrades will increase that number to two and a half trillion.

So, what difference does all this make? Well for one thing, it will pave the way for 'no surprise forecasting' as Weather Service director John Kelly says. The long-range outlooks you see on your local weathercast are based largely on the output from this Weather Service computer. The faster the machine, the better the quality of the forecast and the further out in time the forecast can go. At least a 10 percent increase in accuracy is expected.

The IBM was certified as operational in January . . . just in time to help predict the brutal shift in East Coast weather from a delightful December to a bone-chilling cold and snowy start to the New Year. It faced a bit of a challenge with a storm that left 25 inches of snow in North Carolina. But hey, give it break. It's on a maiden voyage and upgrades for the new IBM are in the works.

Thanks to our technical advisor and contributing writer Bob Henson. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru with support provided by the National Science Foundation.