Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has won a $35+ million contract to build one of the fastest supercomputers for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

NCAR is US “federally funded R&D center focused on advancing knowledge of geosciences, including meteorology, climate change, and solar activity.” The organization’s work is more important than ever as the threat from climate change continues to increase.

The new system will be housed at NCAR’s Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne. The system will be a major upgrade over the existing one, providing almost 3.5X faster speed. The supercomputer will go operational in 2022 and help NCAR create digital models of various weather effects to better understand them.

“This new system, powered by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is a major step forward in supercomputing power, providing the scientific community with the most cutting-edge technology to better understand the Earth system,” said Anke Kamrath, director, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory at the National Center of Atmospheric Research. “The resulting research will lead to new insights into potential threats ranging from severe weather and solar storms to climate change, helping to advance the knowledge needed for improved predictions that will strengthen society’s resilience to potential disasters.”