Hardware

CMI researchers are active users of large scale parallel computing. We operate a number of computing clusters in support of the wide range of calculations undertaken in the course of our research. Such local systems form an invaluable adjunct to more remote national supercomputing facilities. CMI researchers are also investigating cloud computing as an exciting new alternative to conventional compute-platform paradigm.

In recent years CMI has added to its resources a fluid laboratory used to develop a real-time fluid observatory. Doubling as a teaching facility, the fluid lab has been a valuable proving ground for the cart and turntable system designed to complement CMI's "weather-in-a-tank" project, an effort aimed at developing a new weather and climate curriculum for schools. Cloud computing, too, is being explored with an eye on its potential value as a tool in science education.

In tandem with the growth in the size of numerical simulations CMI is able to undertake, has come a growing need for improved means of viewing the resulting solutions. CMI has built and supports several multi-LCD, panels or "Viz-walls" in Building 54 as well as elsewhere on campus. Besides displaying the wealth of high-resolution images and movies CMI generates they make compelling teaching and outreach tools.

Software

Several of the technologies CMI fosters involve the development of unique software tools. Through the OpenAD collaboration, great strides have been made to create the adjointable version of MITgcm, CMI's in-house general circulation model, which underpins ECCO and its many related projects.

ESMF is another suite of software CMI has been helping develop, an involvement that has led to innovative multi-scale ocean modeling studies paralleling the atmospheric modeling idea of superparameterization.