By Bryan Gardiner August 17,
2007 | Science, Sports found at blog.wired.com
Add
another plan to China’s ongoing attempts to clean up its act prior to
the 2008 Olympics: the Beijing weather bureau announced it has purchased a
new supercomputer from IBM to help forecast rain and pollution during the
games.
A report in the Wall Street Journal (see below) on Friday
claims that the built-to-order "System p575" will represent the
most advanced supercomputer ever employed by an Olympics host, cranking
out computations a thousand times faster than previous weather-forecasting
computers used during Atlanta and Athens Games.
All that forecasting power won’t come cheap, however. The System p575
is going to set the city back several million dollars, according to IBM
officials. Nevertheless, the new is apparently being welcomed by Beijing's
Weather Manipulation Office, who has been experimenting seeding rain
clouds for the past few months. Knowing where those rain-clouds are is
going to be will help, Beijing officials said.
Photo: Beijing Olympics "Bird's Nest" stadium obscured by
rain and fog. Found on flickr
Forecasting the Olympics weather
Beijing Invests Big In Weather Computer; Can Rain Be Moved?
BEIJING -- The Chinese capital's weather bureau has bought a
supercomputer from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to help forecast
rain and pollution during next year's Olympics, another sign of China's
elaborate preparations for an event seen as the nation's coming-out party.
The supercomputer, an IBM System p575, carries a price tag of
"several million dollars," according to IBM officials. It will run
China's most advanced weather-forecasting systems and provide 10 times the
computational power of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau's current system.
It will also be the most advanced supercomputer employed by an
Olympics host, able to do computations a thousand times faster than the computer
used to forecast weather at the 1996 Atlanta Games, said IBM researcher Zaphiris
Christidis. Athens, which hosted the most recent Summer Olympics, also purchased
an IBM supercomputer to aid weather forecasts, but amid scheduling foul-ups it
didn't have enough time to prepare it properly for use at the 2004 Games.
In the past, these supercomputers have helped Olympics hosts by
providing up-to-date forecasts on wind speed, air quality and humidity --
information that athletes can use to adjust and enhance their performances.
Beijing's supercomputer will also enable its weather bureau to predict a
thunderstorm within kilometers of the main Olympic stadium, Mr. Christidis said.
That could assist Beijing officials with one of their main
weather goals: ensuring that it doesn't rain during the opening and closing
ceremonies. For several months, Beijing's Weather Manipulation Office has been
experimenting with techniques to induce rain in areas away from the roofless
Olympic stadium, to drain the clouds before they get there. Greater information
on rain-cloud locations could help.
"The IBM supercomputer will allow for much more fine
numerical weather forecasting for the Beijing area during the Olympics and
afterwards," said Liu Xulin, director of the Beijing Meteorological
Information Center.
Beijing officials have been struggling with weather and
environment issues, vowing to improve the city's high pollution levels ahead of
the Games next year. This month, in an embarrassing episode for city officials,
the International Olympic Committee's president, Jacques Rogge, said some
sporting events might have to be postponed because of poor air quality.
Exports of U.S. supercomputers and other sophisticated
technology to China can be sensitive, because of fears among some in the U.S.
that China could use such equipment for military as well as civilian purposes.
IBM says that the computer it is selling to Beijing is built and intended for
weather-forecasting purposes and that the sale has received all necessary
regulatory approvals.
Write to Mei Fong at mei.fong@wsj.com
