Hera supercomputer now ranks 88th fastest in the world, tripling computing capacity to further enhance weather modeling.
Fairfax, Va. – General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) today announced the completed installation of a new upgrade to the Hera supercomputer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Security Computing Center in Fairmont, West Virginia. The work was completed on a task order with the NOAA High-Performance Computing and Communications Research and Development HPC System awarded to GDIT in 2018.
“NOAA is proud to have such capacity in West Virginia, which is certainly needed to contribute to the tools NOAA needs to advance weather modeling, build ocean ecosystem forecasts, and sustain our world leadership in climate models,” said Craig McLean, NOAA assistant administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
GDIT procured, installed and now manages the HPE/Cray CS500 HPC cluster. The system is three times faster than its predecessor, increasing capacity to 3.3 petaflops. Hera now ranks No. 88 fastest supercomputer in the world by Top500.org.
“This upgrade to the Hera system and the resulting increase in compute power will directly benefit NOAA's weather forecasting research that is so important to our daily lives and safety of our communities,” said Kevin Connell, GDIT vice president of Science and Engineering and executive leader of the company’s HPC Center of Excellence.
GDIT is currently supporting five high-performance computing environments for NOAA research and weather forecasting, the Research and Development HPC Systems (RDHPCS) and the under-development Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS).
As a leading systems integrator of HPC systems, this latest upgrade continues the supercomputing support provided by GDIT and its HPC Center of Excellence to the federal government, solving challenging and complex scientific problems across civilian, health and intelligence agencies.
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Oliver Nutt
Oliver.Nutt@gdit.com