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High Performance Computing for Geospatial Applications pp 249–268Cite as

Domain Application of High Performance Computing in Earth Science: An Example of Dust Storm Modeling and Visualization

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Part of the book series: Geotechnologies and the Environment ((GEOTECH,volume 23))

Abstract

Earth science models often raise computational challenges, requiring a large number of computing resources, and serial computing using a single computer is not sufficient. Further, earth science datasets produced by observations and models are increasingly larger and complex, exceeding the limits of most analysis and visualization tools, as well as the capacities of a single computer. HPC enabled modeling, analysis, and visualization solutions are needed to better understand the behaviors, dynamics, and interactions of the complex earth system and its sub-systems. However, there are a wide range of computing paradigms (e.g., Cluster, Grid, GPU, Volunteer and Cloud Computing), and associated parallel programming standards and libraries (e.g., MPI/OpenMPI, CUDA, and MapReduce). In addition, the selection of specific HPC technologies varies widely for different datasets, computational models, and user requirements. To demystify the HPC technologies and unfold different computing options for scientists, this chapter first presents a generalized HPC architecture for earth science applications, and then demonstrates how such a generalized architecture can be instantiated to support the modeling and visualization of dust storms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Qunying Huang

  2. Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Jing Li

  3. State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Tong Zhang

Authors
  1. Qunying Huang
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  2. Jing Li
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  3. Tong Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qunying Huang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Geographic Information Science, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Wenwu Tang

  2. Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Shaowen Wang

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Huang, Q., Li, J., Zhang, T. (2020). Domain Application of High Performance Computing in Earth Science: An Example of Dust Storm Modeling and Visualization. In: Tang, W., Wang, S. (eds) High Performance Computing for Geospatial Applications. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47998-5_14

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