World Community Grid launches AfricanClimate@Home  |
|
World Community Grid and the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
have launched a global computing effort to improve regional climate models in order to make better
projections about what effects a changing climate will have in Africa.
Climate change is of grave concern in all areas, but in developing regions such as Africa, the impact can be
more acute because of the lack of access to healthcare and other social services. Widespread floods, for example,
can lead to water borne illness and related diseases such as dengue fever or malaria, which are spread by
infected mosquitoes that thrive in water. Droughts can have devastating effects as well by bringing on
pervasive food shortages.
By making better predictions about how global climate change might realistically affect regions of Africa,
resource managers can start to make decisions that might alleviate the adverse effects. For example, they
could begin planning an irrigation infrastructure or promoting appropriate drought resistant crops.
The project, "AfricanClimate@Home," will use the vast computational power of World Community Grid to improve
the models used to predict the climate by conducting simulations in small regions of Africa and then checking
them against real observations. While large-scale global climate models provide people with a general idea of
what the climate may be like over a wide area, they do not necessarily reflect what will happen in a particular region because the global models do not sufficiently take into account large lakes, mountains, or plains that can affect the local climate.
According to lead researcher Dr. Mark Tadross, "Making predictions about the climate requires an enormous
amount of computational power because of all of the variables, such as temperature, wind, pressure,
and humidity. In order to improve the models, we need to come up with better algorithms that will
more closely match what is observed in a local area. By using World Community Grid, we have the
computational power necessary to run the tests we need to improve our models."
Once researchers have access to models that more accurately predict regional weather patterns, they can then begin to run forecasts about how global climate changes may affect the region. Forewarning any potentially dramatic changes in climate, especially those related to extreme events such as droughts and floods, can enable vulnerable communities and disaster management teams to act in advance of climatic hazard.
"We can all have a profound effect on this research simply by donating our unused computer cycle time," said
Stanley Litow, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM
International Foundation. "If you own a computer and can access the Internet, then you can be a part of
the solution in an area of the world where access to computers and high speed connections are not as ubiquitous."
To learn more, please go to:
In Depth Research Description
Status Report
|
