DOESciDAC ReviewOffice of Science


ISSN: 1935-0570
Cover image: Climate Modeling
The instantaneous Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) is a measure of the atmospheric-terrestrial exchange of carbon as simulated with a version of the CCSM3 model. This simulation was conducted as part of the C-LAMP project, an intercomparison activity designed to evaluate the performance of biogeochemical models when coupled to atmospheric general circulation models.
CONTENTS
ISSUE 7 SPRING 2008
4
NEWS
SciDAC News, Activities, and Announcements
6
INTERVIEW: DR. STEVE CHU COVER STORY
Science, Computation, and Collaboration at Berkeley Lab
LBNL Director Dr. Steve Chu discusses Berkeley Lab, high-performance computing, and collaborations for solving important science problems in the future.  
10
SIMULATION SCALE  
In HPC Simulations, How Much is Enough?
Running a recently developed, high-performance molecular dynamics code on BlueGene/L, researchers at LLNL are closing in on answers to fundamental issues of simulation scale: how large a simulation is large enough, and how small a scale is small enough?
20
FUSION
Supercomputing Boosts Fusion Research
Researchers employing scientific computing have made great advances towards a practical fusion reactor, and as computational resources continue to grow and improve, the day when fusion power becomes a reality is drawing closer.
32
SUBSURFACE
Science for Problems Under the Surface
Processes in Earth's subsurface are central players in several critical, interrelated energy and environmental issues. Leadership-class computing will soon be brought to bear on understanding and predicting these processes across a wide range of time and space scales.
42
HARDWARE
Opening New Possibilities in Science and Engineering
With a new IBM Blue Gene/P system and its smaller predecessor, the Blue Gene/L, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility is accelerating the coming era of petascale computation in support of breakthrough science and engineering.
50
CLIMATE
Bridging the Gap Between Climate and Weather
Climate change studies are increasingly focused on understanding and predicting regional changes of daily weather statistics. But to predict the next century's statistical trends with confidence, researchers have to demonstrate that their forecasting tools can successfully recreate the conditions of the past century.
58
CLOSING NOTES
Science Accomplishments
A look at the development of a curved mesh correction tool for 3D complex geometries and how the technology is impacting the process of designing the next generation of particle accelerators.