The Climate Grid: Mission and Results

Our group chose to be involved in the Climateprediction.net grid-computing project, which analyzed data from previous years around various parts of the globe to determine patterns helpful in predicting weather and climate more accurately. Over the course of this semester our grid completed three different tasks:

     Using Climate over Northern Africa to Predict Climate in the Pacific Northwest
               Total Time 7 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes, and 15 seconds
               Credit Earned 3,672

     Using Climate over Southern Africa to Predict Climate in the Pacific Northwest
               Total Time 7 days, 1 hour, 41 minutes, and 3 seconds
               Credit Earned 3,411
     Using Climate over the Mediterranean to Predict Climate in the Atlantic Northeast
               Total Time 11 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes, and 37 seconds
               Credit Earned 3,963

     The grid is currently using data from the previous three tasks to predict climate over the Great Plains, and has been doing so for the last 12 days. A "credit" in grid-computing is a unit that a computer can earn. Credits can be thought of as the percentage of completion of a total task, or an amount contributed and recognized to the task. The main purpose of this grid is to use climate data from as far back as possible from all over the world to help predict patterns that are to be expected in certain areas. With more accurate predictions more preparations can be made during upcoming droughts, hurricane/monsoon seasons, and periods of excessive heat or bitter cold. Moreover, the task will run simulations thousands of times with slightly different parameters, in hopes of finding out how sensitive individual models are to small disturbances, as well as to changes in carbon dioxide and sulphates in the atmosphere. Small tweaks are slight enough to not make the approximations any less realistic, and they allow us to explore how climate may change in the next century under a wide range of different scenarios (Climate prediction.net). These models must include everything down to clouds to try and increase accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of climate and weather prediction.

     The future of this grid is uncertain, as we do not find out about future tasks; however, our computer will stay involved to help further the climate prediction grid. However, it might be expected that our computer will be involved in the HYDRA project, which is focusing on hydrological changes expected of global warming, the RAPID-CHAAOS project, which is to find a set of model versions that can shadow recent surface and subsurface ocean changes (Climateprediction.net), or the RAPID-RAPIT project which aims to assess the risk of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) collapse in the coming century (Climateprediction.net).


      If there has been one word to define our experience with grid computing, it would be "simplicity". Grid computing is an incredibly simple yet effective way to take part in an active study on almost any subject imaginable. Over the course of the past few months we feel that our participation in this project has enhanced the climate change research taking place today. Likewise, our interview with an expert really opened our eyes to the connection between climate change and evolution. Climate change can have dramatic effects on almost everything, even down to the lowest organisms, so the more knowledge we can gain on this subject, the more prepared we can be to face these changes. Through the help of active participation and simple grid computing, this project has become a great learning experience, one that we feel fortunate to have contributed to.