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India is set to significantly enhance its supercomputing capabilities with the installation of a powerful 18-petaflop system later this year, according to Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju. The term "flops" refers to floating point operations per second, which is a measure of a computer's processing speed. A petaflop represents one thousand trillion flops. The increased processing power provided by the new system will greatly facilitate complex mathematical calculations necessary for various applications, including weather forecasting up to several months in advance.
Currently, India's most powerful civilian supercomputers, Pratyush and Mihir, are located at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune and the National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting in Noida, respectively. These two systems, operational since 2018 with a combined capacity of 6.8 petaflops, were established with an investment of ₹438 crore. Both institutions are affiliated with the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). The forthcoming supercomputers will also be housed at these two institutes, as confirmed by M. Ravichandran, Secretary of MoES, during an event attended by Minister Rijiju at the NCMRWF.
New Supercomputers
The new supercomputers, currently unnamed, are being imported from the French corporation ATOS, an IT service and consulting company. In December 2018, the Indian government signed a deal with France to procure high-performance computers worth ₹4,500 crore by 2025. It is estimated that the MoES computers will cost approximately ₹900 crore. The upgrade is essential as high-performance computing systems need to be refreshed every four to five years. With the existing systems, weather and climate changes can be mapped at a resolution of 12x12 km. However, the new system will enhance the resolution to 6x6 km, providing greater clarity and more accurate local forecasts.
Future Plans and Implications
The long-term goal is to represent areas with a resolution of 1 km², which would enable the timely warning of rapidly evolving weather phenomena such as cloudbursts. Currently, the world's fastest high-performance computing system is the Frontier-Cray system at Oakridge National Laboratory in the United States, boasting a peak speed of one exaflop (equivalent to approximately 1,000 petaflops). The top 10 supercomputers worldwide, ranked by speed, range from approximately 400 petaflops to 60 petaflops.
The improved supercomputing capabilities will have far-reaching implications for various sectors in India, including weather prediction, climate modelling, disaster management, and scientific research. The ability to process vast amounts of data and perform complex simulations will enable scientists and researchers to make more accurate predictions and informed decisions. It will also contribute to advancing the country's capabilities in fields such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, and computational modeling.
Minister Rijiju's visit to the NCMRWF marked his first official visit to a MoES institution since assuming the role on May 18. The investment in high-performance computing infrastructure highlights the Indian government's commitment to advancing scientific research and harnessing the power of technology to address pressing challenges in the domain of earth sciences.
With the installation of the new 18-petaflop supercomputers, India is poised to make significant strides in its ability to process and analyze complex data, ultimately benefiting various sectors and contributing to the nation's scientific and technological advancement.