The UK is steaming under , hundreds died from flooding and landslides after , and . Climate change means an --and it isn’t going away any time soon. But scientists are calling on the power of high-performance computing to help us cope.
1. Hurricane helper
People who live in coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to increased hurricane activity. But new technologies can help residents and local authorities better prepare for powerful storms.
When a hurricane is on the horizon, marine scientists activate advanced computer models like the . A powerful computing cluster at the enables real-time predictions of when and where storm surge will arrive, how far inland it will penetrate, and even how long it will last. In the hands of emergency management crews, that information can save lives.
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2. Going underground
If it’s not too much water, then it’s too little. Uneven precipitation and in the Sierra Nevada mountains is putting California’s water supply at risk. Groundwater reserves can reduce that risk, but scientists don’t always know where and how groundwater moves, or even how much of it exists.
Scientists try to predict future water levels by looking at data from past years. But the extreme weather caused by climate change means historical patterns may no longer be reliable indicators of future water availability.
That’s why scientist is using high-performance computing to from the atmosphere to surface and ground waters. These more accurate models allow researchers to experiment with different scenarios and can help guide water management policies, ensuring a continuous water supply for residential and agricultural use.
3. Keeping forests green
A walk in a mountain forest is a . But that strategy may not work too when the trees are turning brown from lack of water. When forest temperatures rise by just one degree Celsius, streamflow can drop by up to seven percent, cutting off vital water supplies to growing trees.
That’s why scientists like are using unmanned aerial drones to collect real-time biomass data in Colorado forests. The resulting 3D models are helping scientists figure out just how dire the situation really is and what they can do to help.
4. IceBridge
The 5.4 million square miles of Antarctica need a larger solution than a handful of drones. That’s why NASA’s Operation IceBridge flies P3 aircrafts back and forth across the ice caps, using three types of radar to survey the thickness of the ice below.
Because researchers fly over the same areas every year, they can track changes in sea and land ice. The processed data is used to create images of literal slices of the snow, ice, and bedrock, providing scientists with valuable data on how polar ice is changing in a warming world.
5. Looking to the past to glimpse the future
One way to better cope with the effects of current climate change may be to of extreme change. The (56 to 34 million years ago) was the warmest interval of the past 66 million years, but it ended in a period of cooling.
During this time, . The resulting change in ocean circulation patterns could have caused the end of this ‘hothouse’ period. But some researchers think declining levels of carbon dioxide may have been to blame.
Scientists at and used climate models to throughout the Eocene. After four years of continuous computing, their simulations confirmed that the cooling was caused by decreased greenhouse gases.
Lead author Margot Cramwinckel says, “Understanding the drivers behind long-term climate change is important in order to predict the development of future climate change.”
