High performance computing

High performance computing

The Marine System Modelling Group needs access to the latest generation of high performance computing resources in order to undertake global ocean modelling at spatial and temporal resolutions suitable for resolving key processes.

Currently this is provided by the UK National Supercomputing Service, HECToR (High-End Computing Terascale Resource), based at EPCC in Edinburgh. The system has 59392 cores, with a theoretical peak performance of 520 teraflops. Access to HECToR for NERC researchers is through four consortia (Atmospheric and Polar Sciences, Mineral Physics, Oceanography and Shelf Seas). The Oceanography Consortium and Shelf Seas consortia are led by MSM.

Modelling in collaboration with the Met Office is also undertaken on the joint NERC-Met Office high performance computer, MONSooN, which has 960 cores, with a theoretical peak of 18 teraflops. In addition, in-house clusters are used for development work and coarse resolution model runs.

High resolution ocean modelling produces large amounts of output. The results from runs on HECToR are distilled into average fields at 5-day, monthly and annual intervals and held locally at NOCS for analysis on in-house machines. The data from selected runs are made available to the wider academic community in the UK and further afield.

Our current, top-end model is a fully global NEMO configuration at 1/12o horizontal resolution and with 75 vertical levels. This configuration has been developed in collaboration with European partners in France and Germany within the DRAKKAR project and forms the basis for several MSM scientific investigations. Typically this model uses of order 2000 HECToR cores simultaneously and generates approximately 1TB of output for analysis for each model year of simulation.