Mary-Louise Hoffman
A pair of identical supercomputers being operated by General Dynamics‘ information technology unit started to process weather forecast models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The General Dynamics IT business said Wednesday it maintains the Dogwood and Cactus machines at two separate facilities in Virginia and Arizona, respectively, as part of the agency’s Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System program.
GDIT led the procurement and installation of both high-performance computing platforms under a potential 10-year, $505 million contract announced in February 2020.
Dogwood functions as the primary supercomputer and Cactus serves as a backup.
Each machine is designed to process billions of sensor-derived environmental observations at a speed of 12.1 petaflops, which the company says is three times faster than the predecessor system.
Kevin Cornell, a GDIT vice president, said the WCOSS supercomputers are built to support future updates to models the National Weather Service uses in making weather forecasts and alerts.
Technology website TOP500 has ranked Dogwood and Cactus the world’s 49th and 50th fastest supercomputers.
