Destination Earth and EuroHPC JU: vital synergies

With the EuroHPC Summit 2024 taking place this week from 18-21 March in Antwerp, Belgium, it is important to highlight the important partnership between Destination Earth (DestinE) and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). This article, originally published by ECMWF here, explores this groundbreaking collaboration that leverages some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to advance climate and extreme weather prediction technologies.

DestinE wouldn’t be possible without the computing power provided by EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). The pioneering work of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and its partners on DestinE’s digital twins is key in adapting the modern weather and climate simulations codes to operate on some of the largest supercomputers in the world, harnessing their full capabilities.

DestinE is a technology initiative, as much as a climate and extreme weather prediction one. The aim of this novel information system funded by the European Commission is twofold. On one hand DestinE will provide decision-makers with accurate and interactive tools to understand and anticipate the effects of weather extremes and climate change, as well as the impacts on human activity. On the other hand, by funding DestinE, the European Union’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT) step change what is possible today in applying Europe’s pre-exascale and exascale computing to weather-induced extremes and climate projections, boosting machine learning applications and providing innovative solutions in terms of portability and scalability.

Given that the initiative is considered by the European Union to be a strategic tool in meeting the aims of the twin Green and Digital transition, EuroHPC JU grants special access to several of the largest supercomputers in the world for DestinE. This means that DestinE has access to 5% of the JU owned part of EuroHPC resources as the first of its kind strategic initiative, and an additional 5% at the moment in the absence of other strategic initiatives. Three out of the four machines are ranked among the Top 10 supercomputers in the world by the latest Top500 list (November 2023).

For those interested in delving deeper into how DestinE and EuroHPC JU are pioneering the fusion of high-performance computing with environmental forecasting, and to gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential this holds for shaping a sustainable future, read the full article on ECMWF’s website.