On Tuesday, January 21, Météo-France started a tender to renew his two supercomputers, which have been in operation in Toulouse for three years. Climatologists want to continue to “improve their forecasts, anticipate risky phenomena” and better adapt to climatic upheavals.
We cannot stop progress. The computers of Belenos, God of Light, and Taranis, God of heaven, lightning and thunder, have apparently proven themselves at Météo-France. But can do it better. These two “supercomputers” – installed in Toulouse, one at Météo France and the other in the Clément Ader area – are currently being renewed after they have served good and loyalty to the reliability of the weather forecasts for three years. .
21.48 billion equations per second
The supercomputer? An impressive computer that develops a phenomenal calculation potential per second at a speed of 21.48 million billion equations per second. But there is even better, says the broadcaster, who started a tender to renew his two high -performance machines on Tuesday, January 21. The tender will be effective all year round, Météo-France is planning “a first assignment in 2027”. The contract will cover the period by 2033, with the use of additional computing power in 2029. At this point, you will be compared with your current performance that supercomputers achieve a six -time computing capacity.
Energy efficiency
Météo-France initially invested 55 million euros in these new tools, which “will integrate new calculation architectures that enable them to increase their performance and at the same time increase their energy efficiency,” indicates the management, which specifies: “The total amount of the estimated market value is 185 million. ”Euro (without taxes) for the six -year period.
Maximum useful life
In fact, supercomputers have a maximum useful life (end-of-life 2027), which is associated with essential factors of modernity: “The technical progress and the need to have access to new technologies, for example, continues to see physically . ”Based on forecast systems, coexisting with new approaches based on artificial intelligence, depending on how quickly the equipment is outdated and the supplier who rents it to us is able to continue to offer us long -term security; Ensuring a very high availability to ensure our business continuity; Finally, the need for a regular increase in computing power in order to implement technical progress and to improve the quality and precision of the forecasts.
There is a lot on the game in a time of a weather forecast “market”, where the international competition is great and which is even “one step ahead like the British, Americans and Germans”, Alain Beuraud, project manager, cleared up in 2021 during of the year a supercomputer named after the Gallic gods.
Complementary models are developed
In order to further refine his research, Météo-France will not be satisfied with supercomputers: “We develop and operate two complementary numerical weather forecast: Arpège (the planetary model) and arome (the regional model). These models work by cutting it out. ”The weather station wants to significantly improve its predictions by 2033 by increasing the number of orange or red warnings with a lead time of at least six hours. Improved quality of the precipitation and gusts forecast by around 10 %, more reliable predictions on the intensity of tropical vertebral storms and for air traffic.
Supercomputer and energy generator for the station
Two supercomputers in one at Météo France. This super machine is made by Atos Bull Sequana based in Angers and has 300,000 computing cores compared to 72,000 earlier at AMD Rome technology. This enables experts to develop massively parallel computer architectures. A supercomputer disassembles the tasks to be done into thousands of subtasks, which it processes at the same time. It would take several months or even years for a PC to create the same. The new generations are essentially cooled with water, which has 38 ° C and at the outlet 46 ° C. The operation with a temperature level “enables a reduction in the energy footprint of the systems,” assures Météo France, which uses the heat generated by the supercomputer to heat certain buildings.