Partnership Formed to Develop Supercomputing Center

Sea Technology, Feb 2007

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) recently announced that it will form a partnership with the University of Wyoming, the state of Wyoming and the University of Colorado at Boulder to build a new supercomputing data center for scientific research in Cheyenne, Wyoming. According to NCAR, the center will house some of the world's most powerful supercomputers in order to advance understanding of climate, weather and other Earth and atmospheric processes. The new partnership is contingent on approval from the National Science Foundation, which is NCAR's principal sponsor, as well as from the Wyoming legislature.

Construction of the $60 million data center for the geosciences will begin later this year, once funding and other approvals are completed. The center will open in late 2010 or early 2011.

"We are excited to work on this extraordinary project with our colleagues at the University of Wyoming and the University of Colorado to form new bridges of scientific inquiry," said Tim Killeen, NCAR director. "The data center project is a major step that will advance research in the geosciences and enable us to greatly improve our understanding of the world around us."

"Having an NCAR supercomputing facility in Wyoming will be transformative for the University of Wyoming, will represent a significant step forward in the state's economic development and will provide exceptional opportunities for NCAR to make positive contributions to the educational infrastructure of an entire state," said William Gern, the University of Wyoming's vice president for research and economic development.

NCAR maintains that the center will enable researchers to simulate complex Earth processes and tackle important problems in Earth systems science.

One example NCAR cites is that the increased computing capabilities may help lead to far more accurate forecasts of hurricanes, more detailed simulations of the Earth's climate and a greater understanding of solar storms that affect telecommunications systems and power grids.