SGER: Feasibility of Taking the MAS (Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere) Model to Petascale

该项目是一项探索性活动，旨在测试性能建模和优化方面的新专业知识和技术在太阳日冕数值模拟中的应用。它包括初步工作，以确定未来努力开发球体模型（MAS）之外的千万亿次版本的磁流体动力学算法的可行性。如果MAS和类似的模型可以适应在大规模计算资源上运行良好，例如即将到来的千万亿次系统，那么研究人员就有可能扩展与日冕相关的多尺度物理问题的范围，例如日冕物质抛射，可以用这些模型进行研究。该项目是2006年春季“千万亿次计算与地球科学”研讨会产生的一系列试点项目之一。这些试点活动的目的都与在地球科学不同领域使用高性能计算建模有关，目的是确定如何将前沿地球科学研究中使用的模拟工具应用于未来几年将部署的大规模计算系统。这些分析的结果将在2006年秋季举行的第二届“千万亿次计算与地球科学”研讨会上进行讨论。这个SGER项目涉及加州大学圣地亚哥分校（UCSD）的计算机科学家（专门从事数值应用的详细分析和优化）和科学应用国际（SAIC）的空间物理学家（参与MAS的进一步发展，作为nsf资助的综合空间天气建模中心活动的一部分）之间的合作。这项工作的更广泛影响源于对一种工具的改进，该工具可能对空间物理研究和业务空间天气预报都有用。

This project is an exploratory activity intended to test the application of new expertise and techniques in performance modeling and optimization to the numerical simulation of the solar corona. It encompasses preliminary work to determine the feasibility of a future effort to develop a petascale version of the Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere model (MAS). If MAS and similar models can be adapted to run well on large-scale computational resources, such as forthcoming petascale systems, then it will be possible for researchers to extend the range of multi-scale physical problems associated with the solar corona, such as coronal mass ejections, that can be studied with these models. The project is one of a series of pilot projects spawned by a workshop on "Petascale Computing and the Geosciences" in Spring 2006. The purpose of these pilot activities, all related to the use of high-performance computational modeling in different parts of the geosciences, is to determine how the simulation tools used in leading-edge geoscience research can be adapted for the very large-scale computing systems that will be deployed in the next few years. The results of these analyses will be discussed at a second workshop on "Petascale Computing and the Geosciences" in Fall 2006. This SGER project involves a collaboration between computer scientists from University of California-San Diego (UCSD), who specialize in the detailed analysis and optimization of numerical applications, and space physicists from Science Application International (SAIC) involved in the further development of MAS as part of the activities of the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling.Broader impacts of this work stem from the improvement of a tool that is potentially useful for both space physics research and for operational space weather forecasting.