Atos and ECMWF Launch Center of Excellence in Weather & Climate Modelling to support researchers with HPC, AI and Quantum Capabilities

(GlobeNewsWire)  Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), today announce a new Center of Excellence in HPC, AI and Quantum computing for Weather & Climate. The Center will be based at ECMWF’s headquarters in Reading, UK, where it will provide their team of international researchers with access to emerging AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Quantum Computing technologies and expertise, and benefit from ECMWF’s high-performance computing (HPC) resources to be soon located in Bologna, Italy. The aim is to support ECMWF scientists in their work on medium and long-range weather forecasting and prediction and global climate modelling.
Using these latest advances in technology, ECMWF researchers will be able to improve the ability to forecast the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events and other new weather phenomena triggered by climate change. Equipped with Atos’ latest BullSequana supercomputer, the Center of Excellence will also be supported by Atos experts and technology partners who will collaborate directly with ECMWF research scientists in order to develop new techniques to support next-generation weather forecasting, help boost climate and weather discovery and innovation, and help prepare ECMWF for future HPC and data handling architectures.
“Bringing together world-class experts in computing, computational science and Earth system science is key to continuing to advance our medium- and long-range weather forecasting. The Center builds on a previous successful collaboration with Atos and will play a significant role in helping us to improve and reliably predict the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events and other events associated with climate change significantly ahead of time,” said Dr Florence Rabier, Director General at ECMWF. “Technology will play a key role in supporting our experts in the field and enabling partners in our 34 Member and Co-operating States across Europe to continue to protect life and property in their countries.”