Microsoft Y Met Office, the UK weather forecasting and survey entity, have announced that they will develop the one that will be the most powerful supercomputer in the world of those dedicated to the study of climate and meteorological prediction. Met Office has reached this agreement several months after it was known that it was going to receive about 1,600 million dollars for the development of a supercomputer. Microsoft will participate in the development of this new supercomputer due to its expertise in cloud and quantum computing.
The UK already has a supercomputer, the Cray XC40, dedicated to weather forecasting, capable of performing up to 16,000 billion operations per second, but this new equipment will have twice the power. Thanks to him, the Met Office will be able to access more detailed climate models, which the organization hopes will help it prevent extreme weather events and take measures to protect the infrastructure of its cities and towns, as well as those of its network of passenger and freight transport.
The supercomputer, which if all goes according to plan will be ready to go live next summer 2022, will be installed in the south of the United Kingdom, and will use only renewable energy to work. With this, its operation is expected to save more than 7,000 tons of CO2 in its first year in operation. When it does, it will also be used to provide detailed simulations of local weather forecasts, with the aim of helping emergency services prepare for episodes of torrential rains and floods.
Penny Endersby, CEO del Met Office, has indicated that their joint work with Microsoft will offer «Higher-quality weather and climate data sets and increasingly accurate forecasts that enable the decision-making necessary to stay safe and move forward. It will be a unique capability that will not only be for the Met office, but will put the UK at the forefront of environmental modeling and high-performance computing. This investment by the British Government is a huge vote of confidence in the Met Office’s standing as the world’s leading provider of climate science and services, as well as in our national commitment to building a resilient world in a changing climate.«.
Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, for its part, it has indicated that «The Met Office has long been synonymous with excellence and innovation in our understanding of the impact of weather and climate. Advancing the ecological challenges we face requires innovation, technology and agreements. The potential of the Met Office’s vast experience, data collection capabilities and historical archive, combined with its large scale and supercomputing power in Microsoft Azure will mean that we can improve prediction, help combat climate change and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of climate science for decades to come«.
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