The researchers continue to publicize the project and work on making the data easy to share.
Project background
Through the Africa Rainfall Project, researchers at Delft University of Technology are creating high-resolution computer simulations of localized rainstorms in sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to massive, crowdsourced computing power from World Community Grid, they can run these simulations at a much higher resolution—exactly what's needed for localized rainstorms. This has never been done for rainstorms in this region.
This is important because 95% of agriculture in Africa depends on rainfall. The project uses data generated from World Community Grid, data from The Weather Company, and other information to provide more accurate rainfall forecasts. This information can help farmers more successfully raise their crops.
Presentations
In March, Professor Nick van de Giesen (the project's principal investigator) gave a presentation about the project to a group of IBM employees. You can read much of the information he presented in their most recent project update.
Research team member Camille Le Coz will be giving a presentation the EGU General Assembly 2021, a virtual conference for the European Geosciences Union. The conference is scheduled for late April.
Data storing and sharing
The researchers continue to work on getting the data in a format that can be easily shared with other scientists and the general public. To help facilitate this, they hope to have a first version of a web interface ready in several months.
Current status of work units
World Community Grid is currently sending out generation 59. (A generation is a set of work--in this case, a set of computer simulations of rainfall in sub-Saharan Africa.)
Click here to learn more about World Community Grid's monthly project updates.