IBM's supercomputers might soon power the weather-predicting systems of tomorrow. Through its subsidiary The Weather Company, the computing titan has partnered with the University Corporation for Academic Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to move beyond today's regional-scale forecasting to anticipate weather at the local level...and aspire to introduce the first model that covers the whole globe.
Current tech forecasts massively-sized meteorological systems that influence regional weather, like snowstorms and hurricanes. The model this IBM collaboration wants to build would account for the influence smaller events (like thunderstorms) have on local weather. IBM will join with UCAR to co-design a computational solution that runs on the former's POWER9-based systems, which are set to launch at the end of the year. The Weather Company will use this computing powerhouse to adapt NCAR's community-weather model to a global scale and refine the longer-term predictions to make more accurate forecasts weeks or months out.
