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Fujitsu Provides HPC System to Japan Meteorological Agency with 42.3PB

For forecasting of linear rainbands and torrential rains

Fujitsu Ltd provided a new HPC system to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)1 for use in linear rainband forecasting.

Japan Meteo

The new HPC system is able to predict the occurrence of linear rainbands2 which can trigger heavy rain, leading to disasters like landslides and flooding. The JMA will start operations of the new system on March 1, 2023.

The system is based on the Fujitsu Supercomputer PRIMEHPC FX10003 hardware, which features the same A64FX CPU as the HPC Fugaku, jointly developed by Riken4 and Fujitsu. Reaching a theoretical peak performance of about 31.1 PFLOPS5, the new system will help the JMA to improve the accuracy of its forecasting of linear rainbands.

With the new system, Fujitsu will support the JMA in its efforts to provide more accurate and rapid forecasts, allowing authorities to improve preparedness for heavy rain events and offer earlier warnings in case of disasters. In this way, it demonstrates its commitment to contribute to the realization of a safer, more secure, and resilient society through disaster prevention and mitigation.

New system to realize greater accuracy for forecasts, natural disasters
Weather-related disasters including landslides and floods caused by sudden heavy rain falls represent an increasingly severe risk in many regions worldwide. Japan, with its subtropical climate, remains especially prone to this risk and frequently faces torrential rains, which often pose a severe threat to human life and material assets.

Heavy rains are often triggered by linear rainbands, a weather phenomenon that can occur when cumulonimbus clouds slowly move or remain for several hours over the same area.

To this end, an early prediction of the occurrence of linear rainbands plays an essential role in the prevention and mitigation of rain-related disasters.

To address this issue, the JMA introduced a new supercomputer system based on the Fujitsu Supercomputer PRIMEHPC FX1000 which delivers performance and reliability, to improve the accuracy of its linear rainband forecasting. JMA has been developing linear rainband forecasting technology since June 2022 using supercomputer Fugaku and plans to leverage the results in the development of the new system.

Fujitsu Provides Hpc System To Japan Meteorological Agency1

Key features and configuration of the new system
The new HPC system consists of 24 racks (12 racks each for the main and sub systems), and reaches a theoretical peak performance of about 31.1 PFLOPS. Fujitsu anticipates that this system will rank as one of the world’s top 50 HPCs under the global TOP 500 ranking6. The storage system consists of fast storage with a total capacity of 42.3PB7.

The system will be installed at a data center of Fujitsu, which is equipped with safeguard mechanisms vs. various disasters including earthquakes and flooding to support BC through stable operation management around the clock.

Figure 2: Supercomputer for linear rainband forecasting8

Fujitsu Provides Hpc System To Japan Meteorological Agency2

 

Future plans
Moving forward, Fujitsu will continue to support the JMA’s activities including the promotion of development of observation and forecasting technologies such as JMA’s large-scale central AMeDAS system (Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System)9. It will further continue to contribute to the solution of societal issues, including the prevention and mitigation of rain and water-related disasters by leveraging its world-class HPC technologies.

1 Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA): Location: Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan; Director-General: Masanori Obayashi
2 Linear rainband: Also called stationary linear mesoscale convective systems
3 Fujitsu Supercomputer PRIMEHPC FX1000: Uses the A64FX CPU, which incorporates both the Arm v8-A instruction set architecture and the HPC-focused Scalable Vector Extension (SVE). It offers performance for its power consumption, andt also high computational efficiency due to its wide bandwidth HBM2 memory, a type of layered memory.
4 Riken: Headquarters: Wako City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan; president: Makoto Gonokami
5 Petaflops (PFLOPS): Peta Floating-point Operations per Second; A thousand trillion (1015) FLOPS, meaning a thousand trillion floating-point calculations per second
6 Top 500: The performance index was based on the performance index announced in November 2022 in the Top 500 HPC ranking. The Top 500 list regularly ranks the top 500 fastest computer systems in the world based on LINPACK performance. Starting in 1993, it ranks HPCs twice a year (June, November).
7 Petabytes: Equals to 1,000TB; measures the amount of information in a computer or storage device.
8 NAPS case design: NAPS on the main panel stands for Numerical Analysis and Prediction System; name as registered by the JMA (NAPS is not a registered trademark of Fujitsu).
9 AMeDAS (Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System): A system that collects, calculates, and distributes observation data by automatically monitoring precipitation, wind direction and velocity, temperature, and relative humidity from about 1,300 observatories in Japan nationwide, including meteorological observatories and weather stations, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Fujitsu’s Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Fujitsu Provides Hpc System To Japan Meteorological Agency3

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 represent a set of common goals to be achieved WW by 2030.

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