By Steve Ranger, 31 October 2006 16:05
NEWS
Scientists need much more supercomputing power to help them understand changes to the world's climate, according to the Met Office.
Research carried out by the Met Office formed the backbone of the scientific effort that went into the Stern review on climate change, published earlier this week - but climate scientists could usefully use up to 10,000 times the computing capability that is presently in operation, the Met Office said.
Its own supercomputing facility used to rank third in the world in terms of power but, despite a recent doubling in the size of this facility at its base in Exeter, it has now slumped to 69th in the world.
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The weather experts believe supercomputing will be worth the initial outlay, saying the "potential costs" of climate change are several orders of magnitude larger than the costs of improving climate projections.
Met Office chief executive Mark Hutchinson said it is not yet possible to calculate the risk that global warming poses to the UK's way of life but added: "The Met Office has some of the best climate scientists in the world and knows best how to use its data but it could do so much more for the benefit of the country given the chance".
Comments
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1. Graham Coles
So does this mean one day they'll actually be able to give you an accurate forecast for the weekend ...
2. Roy Corneloues
Will they then be able to factor in the extra CO2 emmissions the additional computing power will generate... ;-)
3. Roger Huffadine
In other words "We haven't yet been able to prove that the changes in climate are anything other than a normal 100,000 year cycle. BUT please give us more money and toys 'cos we don't want to have to find real jobs that contribute to society, we are much happier publishing papers full of bullshit to add to our CVs."
4. Dan F
So they must generate substantially more heat (I will leave 'hot air' jokes alone) in order to tell us to generate substantially less heat?!