Visitors in SCD's Visualization Lab see a presentation on climate modeling.

NCAR's Scientific Computing Division

The mission of the Scientific Computing Division (SCD) is to serve the computing, research, and data management needs of atmospheric and related sciences. SCD realizes this mission by providing::

• High-performance computing and expertise needed for the development and execution of large, long-running numerical simulations
• A data archiving and management system that is balanced in performance and capacity relative to computational resources
• High-speed network and data communication capabilities that are balanced with respect to computational facilities, storage facilities, and the requirements of a national and international community
• Research datasets and expertise needed by atmospheric and related sciences
• A computing environment and support services that emphasize user productivity and cost-effectiveness
• Education and training in computing and related technologies with an emphasis on under-represented groups
• Transfer of appropriate NCAR technology to the private sector in collaboration with the UCAR Foundation

40 years of operational expertise

NCAR has provided computing resources and services to the atmospheric science research community since its inception in 1960. The NCAR Computing Facility was formally organized in 1964 and became the Scientific Computing Division (SCD) in 1980. SCD thus has more than 40 years of operational expertise in administering complex and highly reliable computing environments.

Supercomputers, data storage, and networking

Today, SCD manages and operates:

• Technical and commodity supercomputers with an aggregate capacity of over 12 teraflops peak and an average of 600 gigaflops sustained on simulations in production, with about 3% of that capacity dedicated to data analysis, postprocessing, and scientific visualization
  
• A Mass Storage System that archives and serves over 70 terabytes of atmospheric and related research data, over 2.1 petabytes of data used in supercomputing simulations, and a current total capacity of 6 petabytes
• High-speed, reliable, secure network connectivity to five campuses that requires support of over 150 logical networks, approximately 180 monitored network devices, and more than 4,700 network-attached devices, plus management commitments to additional municipal and wide-area networks

In addition to managing equipment for high-performance computing, mass storage of scientific data, and networking, SCD maintains a sophisticated physical infrastructure to house that equipment, along with a professional operations staff who provide support 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

Quick response to problems is ensured by continual monitoring of all systems and a formal protocol for monitoring, diagnosing, and reporting problems. Low-level situations are handled by SCD operators, while higher-priority situations are immediately called or paged in to designated hardware, software, or network engineers from SCD or the appropriate vendor. A trouble-ticket system logs and tracks all reports, providing an efficient process for problem escalation and solution.

Serving user communities

In fiscal year 2004, SCD offered services and support to over 1,000 users at more than 200 sites. The division supplies computing resources to two communities of researchers, the Community Facility (CF) and the Climate Simulation Laboratory (CSL). The CF provides high-performance computing to support the NCAR scientific program and meet the needs of university researchers in atmospheric and related sciences. The CSL, a multiagency facility established in 1995, provides high-performance computing, data storage, and data analysis systems to support coupled climate models and large ensembles of climate prediction models.