Abstract
Atmospheric science is advancing towards very complex phenomena at ever smaller temporal and spatial scales. One of the principal tools utilized in atmospheric science are weather prediction models. These models usually demand large execution times and resource allocation, such as CPU time and storage space. The main goal of our research is porting of the Weather Research and Forecasting model to the Grid infrastructure. Porting has been done through bash scripts that are using existing Grid tools for job and data management, authentification mechanisms, and other application level services produced within the SEEGRID project. In this paper, through a few model runs on the Grid we describe certain benefits not only in the overall execution time but also in the ability of performing concurrent runs of the same model especially for scientific purposes. During the execution, we have also faced some drawbacks in data bandwidth, unreliability of some Grid services and relatively hard control of the model execution flow. The final conclusion is that there is a big need and justification for porting the WRF model to the Grid, although it takes a lot of effort to be properly implemented.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Carvalho D, Duarte A, Diacovo R (2009) The EELA-2 Project e-infrastructure, first EELA-2 conference, Bogota, Colombia. Proceedings of the first EELA-2 conference. Editorial CIEMAT, Madrid
Fernández-Quiruelas V, Cofiño A S, Fernández J, Fita L (2009) WRF4G: enabling WRF on the Grid, Proceedings of the Second EELA-2 Conference, Choroni, Venezuela, Editorial CIEMAT, p 149–154
Giannaros T, Melas D, Korosoglou P, Kanellopoulos C, Keramitsoglou, I (2009) Implementing WRF on the Grid in the context of the THERMOPOLIS 2009 campaign, Proc. SEEGRID User Forum, Istanbul
Kotroni V, Lagouvardos K (2004) Evaluation of MM5 high-resolution real-time forecasts over the urban area of Athens. Greece J Appl Meteor 43:1666–1678
Lagouvardos K, Kotroni V, Koussis A, Feidas C, Buzzi A, Malguzzi P (2003) The meteorological model BOLAM at the National Observatory of Athens: assessment of two-year operational use. J Appl Meteorol 42:1667–1678
Laure E, Jones B (2009) “Enabling grids for e-science: The EGEE project”, Grid computing: Infrastructure, service, and application. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 55–72
Laure E, Fisher S, Frohner A et al (2006) Programming the Grid with gLite. Comput Methods Sci Technol 12(1):22–45
Marović B, Potočnik M, Okiljević D, Oklobdžija J (2009) DM-Web—Web access and management of application-specific files in LFC catalogue, Proc. of the SEE-GRID-SCI USER FORUM 2009. Bogazici University, Istanbul, December 9–10
Michalakes, J (2001) Performance and maintainability: conflicting concerns in large community weather models, University of Chicago Computational Institute, January 12
Michalakes J, Chen S, Dudhia J, Hart L, Klemp J, Middlecoff J, Skamarock W (2001a) Development of a next generation regional weather research and forecast model, in developments in teracomputing. In: Walter Zwieflhofer, Norbert Kreitz (eds) Proceedings of the ninth ECMWF workshop on the use of high performance computing in meteorology. World Scientific, Singapore, pp 269–276
Michalakes J, Loft R, Bourgeois A (2001b) Performance-portability and the weather research and forecast model, in on-line proceedings of the HPC Asia 2001 conference. Gold Coast, Queensland, September 24–28
Okiljević D, Marović B (2006) Grid data management web portal, Proc. of 6th symposium of industrial electronics—INDEL 2006, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, pp. 288–293
Acknowledgments
This work has been funded by the EU FP7 SEEGRID-SCI project under the grant number 211338, and by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport Republic of Croatia (project 119-1193086-1323 and BORA project: 119-1193086-1311).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Vassiliki Kotroni
This research is supported by the EU FP7 SEEGRID-SCI (SEE-GRID eInfrastructure for regional eScience) project under the grant number 211338. The article was originally presented at the SEEGRID-SCI User Forum, 09th–10th December 2009, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davidović, D., Skala, K., Belušić, D. et al. Grid implementation of the weather research and forecasting model. Earth Sci Inform 3, 199–208 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-010-0060-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-010-0060-5