–

Supercomputing and meteo

Without supercomputers, weather forecasting as we know it today would not be possible. And as the computing power available to meteorological agencies increases, weather forecasts improve in many ways.

With supercomputers, climate researchers are able to perform climate simulations at a higher resolution, to include additional processes in earth system models, or to reduce uncertainties in climate projections.

Relying on fine-grain weather forecasts to anticipate severe phenomena

Between 1992, when Météo-France invested in their first supercomputer, and today, the compute capacity increased by a factor of 500.000 – and Météo-France expects to keep the same trend in the future. Weather forecasting agencies worldwide need to:

► issue forecasts every hour;
► use a finer mesh size for finer and more reliable predictions;
► enable the prediction, exact location and time of severe weather phenomena.

These objectives require increased model resolution and the incorporation of a greater quantity of data and observations in the forecasting process. This means more computing resources and the capacity to handle massive data efficiently.

–

HPC to face the challenge of climate change

Valérie Masson-Delmotte is a French climate scientist and Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, where she works in the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory (LSCE). She explains here how High Performance Simulation can help face the challenges of climate change.

CNAG: Unravelling the mysteries of DNA

Ivo G. Gut, Director of the Spanish Genomics Center (CNAG) explains how they analyze more than ten human genomes everyday, with the help of Bull supercomputers. Their ultimate purpose is to turn the sequences into valuable insight, so as to improve people’s health and quality of life.

–

Pirbright Institute: advancing viral research and animal health

When a deadly virus emerges, scientists must respond rapidly to characterize the virus, track its spread, and stop it from devastating livestock and possibly infecting humans. As a global leader in this work, The Pirbright Institute in the UK needs flexible high-performance computing (HPC) resources that can handle a wide variety of workloads.

Pirbright deployed a Bull supercomputer from Atos. With a unified environment running its diverse applications, Pirbright
enhances scientific productivity and helps policymakers respond effectively when a viral outbreak threatens.

–

Boost the translation of Omics to the clinic environment

To face the demands of an ageing population, the current healthcare system needs to evolve towards a sustainable model focused on patient wellness. This revolution will only be possible by transferring research breakthroughs – from genomic research in particular – to everyday healthcare.

–

CIPF: Leveraging genomics for better diagnosis and treatment

Genome sequencing and analysis are complex tasks that demand powerful analytics platforms. The compute time needed for sequencing has been reduced considerably in recent years, making it possible to drastically increase the amount of genomic data collected on large study populations. This opens the way to a new genomic-based healthcare service, leveraging in-depth and comprehensive genomic analyses for a predictive and personalized medicine. The challenge is to achieve:

► Better and predictive diagnosis
► More efficient treatments
► Customized dosing

To implement such a promising project, sequence analysis must be available on an industrial scale, and complex analytics must be supported. This requires computational power on an unprecedented scale.

–

Related resources

Ascent

Genomics, a cornerstone of precision medicine

Genomics turns to HPC to translate its advances into information that’s actually usable in a clinical setting, for precision medicine.

Opinion Paper

Digital Vision for Supercomputing & Big Data

Reinventing our world through data