The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Navy are teaming up with scientists from the public, private, and academic sectors to design the next generation of models for predicting weather, ocean conditions, and regional climate change.

Four teams of scientists are beginning projects this month to develop faster, better integrated models. These models will take advantage of new supercomputers that use more energy efficient (lower-cost) processors, such as those originally developed for the video gaming industry.

“Our nation’s security and economic well-being relies upon accurate weather, ocean, and climate prediction,” said Robert Detrick, NOAA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. “These highly collaborative research teams will use NOAA’s supercomputers to move the U.S. into the next generation of models that will enable us to predict [conditions] over time scales of a few days to a few decades.”

"Collaboration between Federal, academic, and private institutions is essential to developing models of unprecedented resolution and accuracy to inform critical national security decisions,” said Dr. Tom Drake, Director of the Office of Naval Research’s Ocean, Atmosphere & Space Research Division.  The models will “take advantage of the newest computer technologies—such as advances in general purpose graphical processor units—and new environmental prediction models that integrate information on air, oceans, waves, and ice systems.”  

To read the full news release from NOAA, please click here.