Scalable algorithms for weather and climate prediction

The second phase of the project ESCAPE will start from October 1, 2018 for three years within the European framework Horizon 2020 "Transition to Exascale Computing". ESCAPE stands for "Energy-efficient Scalable Algorithms for Weather and Climate Prediction at Exascale". The successor project ESCAPE-2 aims to develop extreme-scale and energy-efficient methods for weather and climate prediction.

DKRZ – Partner of the Climate Week ("Klimawoche")

From September 23 to 30, 2018 Hamburg will be hosting the 10th and so far biggest edition of the Climate Week ("Klimawoche"), an event that attracted up to 350,000 visitors in previous years. DKRZ is one out of 200 Climate Week partners comprising companies, organizations and associations that are all committed to building a climate-friendly and sustainable city. The opening speech will be given by the Climate Week’s honorary patron Albert II, Prince of Monaco. In addition to the traditional educational program there will be a theme park and a stage program at the Lattenplatz, complemented by a variety of presentations and a diverse cultural program.

Stefan Heinzel

We are shocked by the sudden passing of our colleague and friend Stefan Heinzel. In addition to being the director of the Garching Computing Centre (today: Max Planck Computing and Data Facility MPCDF), Stefan Heinzel also served as technical director of DKRZ in the years 2006-2009 and was responsible for the advancement of our high-performance computer infrastructure.

DKRZ becomes member of the NCL Advisory Panel

At the first meeting of the newly founded NCL Advisory Panel at the NCAR in Boulder / USA on August 2 and 3, 2018, Karin Meier-Fleischer became the only non-US member of the board on behalf of DKRZ.

International Summer School

The DKRZ’s expert knowledge was in high demand at this year’s International Summer School from 9th to 13th July 2018 in Lecce, Southern Italy.

Just published: The DKRZ yearbook

The yearbook of DKRZ for the years 2016-2017 was published end of July 2018 and shows a good profile of all the activities at DKRZ. It summerizes the results of important completed projects and takes a look at ongoing and newly started projects.

Mistral on rank 55 of TOP500 list

On the opening day of the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), which took place in Frankfurt from June 24 to 28, the TOP500 list of the most powerful supercomputers was traditionally published. The HPC system Mistral at the DKRZ is, two years after it was put up in operation, listed on rank 55 and is Germany's sixth largest supercomputer.

Climate Globe exhibit and "meermenschen" at Planetarium Hamburg

In the upcoming weeks, DKRZ’s Climate Globe will be on display in the foyer of the Planetarium Hamburg. The globe will be accessible to the public, allowing planetarium visitors to choose from and have a look at a diverse range of climate visualizations. At the same time, the planetarium shows the photo exhibition "meermenschen".

Julian Kunkel takes on junior-professorship in Reading

Dr. Julian Kunkel, former member of the research group "Scientific Computing" at the DKRZ, has accepted a junior-professorship at the beginning of April as a lecturer in computer science at the University of Reading, Great Britain.

DKRZ took an active part in the EGU in Wien, Austria

From April 8 to 13, 2018, more than 15,000 scientists from more than one hundred countries met in Vienna for the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), which addresses topics from all disciplines of earth, planetary and space sciences. Employees of the DKRZ participated in the comprehensive conference program with numerous pico presentations (Pico = Presenting Interactive Content), workshops, lectures, presentations and posters.

The DKRZ long-term archive has assigned its 1000th DOI

The DKRZ long-term archive WDCC (World Data Center for Climate) has assigned its 1000th DataCite DOI to the experiment OceanRAIN-M of the project “Ocean Rainfall And Ice-phase precipitation measurement Network”.

New online services for DKRZ users

DKRZ not only provides HPC resources and storage systems, but additionally offers online services that support users in all phases of their work, from software development through model analysis to data analysis.

Energy efficency of the computing system Mistral

DKRZ has been working on the optimization of its energy efficiency since 2011 in order to fulfill its environmental responsibility. Thus, the tender of the high-performance computer Mistral included the requirement to minimize energy consumption. High performance computing systems need a lot of energy. Supercomputers, such as Mistral at the DKRZ, consume about as much energy as 1,000 private households, but on an area of only 200 m². However, the energy is reasonably used to make predictions about possible climate changes and to provide this knowledge to decision makers in politics and the economy.

Kickoff for the project EOSC-hub

On January, 9th, 2018, the EOSC-hub project funded by Horizon202020 was launched in Amsterdam. The aim of this project is the integration of various European providers of services, software and data for data-driven research.

DKRZ@SC‘17 in Denver, USA

At the moment the 30th Supercomputing Conference 2017 (SC'17) ‑ the world's largest High Performance Computing (HPC) event is taking place. From November 12-18, more than 13,000 manufacturers, experts and users meet in Denver, USA, to discuss the latest innovations in HPC, networking, storage, analysis and big data. DKRZ also participates in the SC'17.

Agreement on long-term financing of DKRZ's climate computer signed

Today the First Mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, the president of the Helmholtz Association, Prof. Dr. Dr. Otmar D. Wiestler, and the president of the Max Planck Society, Prof. Dr. Martin Stratmann, signed a long-term financing agreement for the high performance computer at the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) on 24th October 2017.

Relaunch of the DKRZ Website

In order to optimize the process of locating and accessing the desired information, the DKRZ website has been revised, restructured, and partly extended.

French minister of science visits university of Hamburg

On 1st September 2017, the French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Prof. Frédérique Vidal, visited the University of Hamburg. Her special interest was in the field of climate research. Previously, Vidal and her German colleague, Johanna Wanka, have agreed in Paris to work more closely on central future issues with a special focus on international climate and energy research.

Usergroup Workshop in October 2017

The DKRZ user goup invites to the user group workshop, held from October, 9th, to October, 10th, 2017 in Hamburg. The workshop includes exciting talks, five working goups offering possibility to exchange experiences and a poster exhibition. Dierctly after the workshop three user training courses about programming and data analyse tools are offered by DKRZ.

Phase 6 of CMIP started

CMIP6, the sixth phase of CMIP (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) has started. Under the auspices of the World Climate Research Programme’s (WCRP) Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM), many hundreds of climate researchers worldwide will compare and analyze the outcomes of the latest global climate models.

Mistral on rank 38 of TOP500 list

The latest TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers was published during the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC’17), which took place in Frankfurt from 19th till 22nd June. The supercomputer Mistral at DKRZ is listed on rank 38 of the list and is currently the third most powerful HPC system in Germany. DKRZ will again contribute to the program of the ISC'17 – one of the most important international events for High Performance Computing.

DKK: Fact-checking for climate change

Statement by the DKK (Deutsches Klimakonsortium) on the occasion of the discussions after the withdrawal of the USA from the Paris Climate Agreement

Preview: DKRZ at the ISC'17

DKRZ will again contribute to the program of the upcoming International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) – one of the most important international events for High Performance Computing – which will take place from 18th to 22nd of June in Frankfurt.

DKRZ@EGU 2017

Almost 14,500 attendees from more than one hundred countries came together at the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), which took place from 23rd until 28th April 2017 in Vienna/Austria. Scientists presented their work and projects in about 6,000 orals and PICO presentations as well as in more than 11,000 poster contributions. DKRZ employees participated with various activities to the EGU program.

Intelligent fire protection for the DKRZ data archive

In the beginning of March 2017, DKRZ put an oxygen reduction system for the data archive as a preventive fire protection measure into operation. In one of the world's largest data archives, DKRZ has now stored 55 petabytes of resulting data sets from climate simulations which have been calculated over the last 30 years. The new oxygen reduction system is designed to help prevent fires.

New look for DKRZ’ World Data Center for Climate

After a thorough revision, the web portal of the climate database system at DKRZ (long term archive, DKRZ-LTA) appears in a new design, offers many new functionalities and is much faster and more user-friendly than the previous version.