Acquisition of a Computer Cluster for Geospace Modeling

该项目将购买一个基于AMD Opteron的100节点计算机集群，用于地球空间和等离子体建模。该集群将由新罕布什尔大学地球、海洋和空间研究所（EOS）的四个研究小组使用，他们用类似的工具研究相关过程。具体来说，该星团将用于模拟地球磁层-电离层-热层系统及其与太阳风和行星际磁场的相互作用，模拟等离子体中的磁重联和湍流，模拟地球环电流，模拟无碰撞冲击和粒子加速的动力学模型，模拟宇宙射线对地球气候的影响，以及模拟强耦合尘埃等离子体。计算机集群将显著提高新罕布什尔大学对这些复杂且高度耦合的系统进行建模的能力。将要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。对集群进行的研究具有社会影响，因为它直接关系到与空间天气有关的问题，它将提高我们预测和临近预报空间天气的能力，并了解和减轻其影响。国家空间天气计划明确要求发展这种能力。该集群还将对UNH所有物理学科的学生的教育产生影响，使他们能够使用最先进的计算设施。因此，这个项目将直接有助于下一代科学家的教育。

This project will purchase a 100 node, AMD Opteron based, computer cluster for geospace and plasma modeling. The cluster will be used by four research groups in the University of New Hampshire Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) who study related processes with similar tools. Specifically, the cluster will be used to model Earth's magnetosphere - ionosphere - thermosphere system and its interaction with the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field, simulations of magnetic reconnection and turbulence in plasmas, modeling Earth's ring current, kinetic modeling of collisionless shocks and the acceleration of particles, modeling the impact of cosmic rays on Earth's climate, and simulations of strongly coupled dusty plasmas. The computer cluster will significantly enhance the University of New Hampshire's ability to model these complex and highly coupled systems. Most of the simulation codes that will be used are already mature, and the impact of the cluster on scientific productivity will therefore be immediate. The research to be performed on the cluster has societal impacts because it is directly related to problems related to space weather and it will improve our 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. 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. This project will thus directly contribute to the education of the next generation of scientists.