MRI: Aquisition of Computer Cluster for Heliophysics, Plasma, and Turbulence Modeling

MRI：获取用于太阳物理学、等离子体和湍流建模的计算机集群

• 批准号: 1229408
• 负责人: Joachim Raeder
• 金额: $ 53.5万
• 依托单位: University of New Hampshire
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1229408&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Aquisition; Computer; Cluster; Heliophysics

This project involves the acquisition of a 4,300 core computer cluster to enable leading-edge research in solar physics, the solar wind and its properties, both fluid and plasma turbulence, magnetic reconnection and plasma instabilities, and magnetospheric physics. The cluster will be located in the University of New Hampshire Research Computation and Instrumentation (RCI) core facility and operated by its staff. The installation of the cluster will take advantage of the recent modernization and expansion of the RCI machine room, which provides a stable infrastructure and efficient power supply and cooling to minimize the carbon footprint. The cluster replaces an older one, Zaphod, which is now in its eighth year of operation. While Zaphod has enabled numerous studies and some breakthroughs in computational physics, the new cluster will be at least 15 times more powerful and thus enable more leading-edge science.The cluster will significantly enhance our ability to simulate plasma and fluid systems, benefiting research projects with more than $3.5M in combined yearly expenditures. Progress will not be just incremental, but we have good reason to believe that in many cases our progress will open up new physical regimes. Most of the simulation codes that will be used are already mature, thus the impact of the cluster on scientific productivity will be immediate. Over its lifetime, the computer cluster will enable leading-edge research for at least a dozen faculty, and many more researchers, post-docs, graduate, and undergraduate students.Much of the research to be performed on the cluster is directly related to space weather. Our progress in modeling the solar corona, solar wind, and geospace has an immediate effect on the Nation's ability to forecast and nowcast space weather, and to understand and to mitigate its effects. The National Space Weather Program explicitly calls for the development of such capabilities. One of the projects supported addresses fundamental issues related to climate change, which is also a topic of great societal concern. The cluster will also make an impact on the education of students in all physical disciplines at UNH by giving them access to a state-of-the art computing facility. It will thus help us to attract the most qualified faculty, post-docs, and students, and it will be an extremely valuable resource for educating the next generation of computational scientists.

该项目涉及购置4300个核心计算机群，以便能够在太阳物理、太阳风及其性质、流体和等离子体湍流、磁重联和等离子体不稳定性以及磁层物理方面进行前沿研究。该集群将设在新汉普郡大学研究、计算和仪器(RCI)核心设施内，由其工作人员运营。集群的安装将利用RCI机房最近的现代化和扩建，该机房提供稳定的基础设施以及高效的电力供应和冷却，以最大限度地减少碳足迹。该集群取代了较老的Zaffod集群，后者目前已进入第八个年头。虽然Zaffod已经实现了大量研究和计算物理方面的一些突破，但新的星系团将至少强大15倍，从而实现更多尖端科学。该星系团将显著增强我们模拟等离子体和流体系统的能力，使年总支出超过350万美元的研究项目受益。进步将不仅仅是渐进的，但我们有充分的理由相信，在许多情况下，我们的进步将开启新的物理制度。将使用的大多数模拟代码已经成熟，因此集群对科学生产力的影响将是立竿见影的。在其生命周期内，计算机集群将为至少12名教师以及更多的研究人员、博士后、研究生和本科生提供前沿研究。在集群上进行的大部分研究与太空天气直接相关。我们在日冕、太阳风和地球空间建模方面的进展对国家预测和即时预报空间天气以及理解和减轻其影响的能力具有直接影响。国家空间气象计划明确要求发展这种能力。其中一个得到支持的项目涉及与气候变化有关的基本问题，这也是一个备受社会关注的话题。该群组还将通过允许学生使用最先进的计算设施，对UNH所有物理学科的学生的教育产生影响。因此，它将帮助我们吸引最合格的教师、博士后和学生，它将是培养下一代计算科学家的极其宝贵的资源。