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701-1270-00L 3 Credits BSC , MSC D-USYS , D-INFK , D-MATH , D-PHYS , D-ITET
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High Performance Computing for Weather and Climate

Lecturers & Examiners: Prof. Dr. Oliver Fuhrer
VVZ CR n/a

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:07:35

Abstract

State-of-the-art weather and climate simulations rely on large and complex software running on supercomputers. This course focuses on programming methods and tools for understanding, developing and optimizing the computational aspects of weather and climate models. Emphasis will be placed on the foundations of parallel computing, practical exercises and emerging trends such as using GPUs.

Objective

After attending this course, students will be able to: - Understand a broad variety of high performance computing concepts relevant for weather and climate simulations - Work with weather and climate simulation codes that run on large supercomputers

Content

HPC Overview: - Why does weather and climate require HPC? - Today's HPC: Beowulf-style clusters, massively parallel architectures, hybrid computing, accelerators - Scaling / Parallel efficiency - Algorithmic motifs in weather and climate Writing HPC code: - Data locality and single node efficiency - Shared memory parallelism with OpenMP - Distributed memory parallelism with MPI - GPU computing - High-level programming and domain-specific languages

Resources

Literature

- Introduction to High Performance Computing for Scientists and Engineers, G. Hager and G. Wellein, CRC Press, 2011 - Computer Organization and Design, D.H. Patterson and J.L. Hennessy - Parallel Computing, A. Grama, A. Gupta, G. Karypis, V. Kumar ( https://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~karypis/parbook/ ) - Parallel Programming in MPI and OpenMP, V. Eijkhout ( http://pages.tacc.utexas.edu/~eijkhout/pcse/html/index.html )

General Information

Language
English
Levels
BSC , MSC
Frequency
Yearly recurring

Examination

Type
graded semester performance
Work project in teams of 2-3 students to hand-in up to 1-2 months after block course.

Course Components

Type Title Time & Place Hours
lecture with exercise High Performance Computing for Weather and Climate
Block course June 20. – 24, 2022
  • 20.06. - 24.06 Date 08:15-17:00 (CHN F 42)
40 h semesterly

Offered In