spoke_4-EARTH-&-CLIMATE

SPOKE 4
EARTH & CLIMATE

Context

The continual development and constant implementation of ESM (Earth System Models) are essential to take on complex challenges that society must face in the context of climate change. Meanwhile, there is a growing request for a quicker and more complete availability of climate data necessary to define adaptation and mitigation policies.

Earth System Models include a number of time scales and a wide array of computing requisites, limited by time constraints for the solution, by duration of the simulation, spatial and temporal resolution and by the greater complexity of the processes represented and of the interactions among factors that are part of the climate system.

These challenges can be faced by taking advantage of the integration of artificial intelligence solutions in the ESM and only with advanced hybrid pre- and full exascale computing systems.

Objectives

Spoke 4 seeks to create an interdisciplinary network integrating components of the most advanced modelling of the Earth system, to give the scientific community and users a flexible, reliable, and powerful tool. What’s more, the Spoke will implement a digital infrastructure that is integrated into the HPC and cloud structures, provided by the National Centre, which will help reach a number of goals: developing and sharing ESM components (e.g., models of the atmosphere, of the oceans, of sea ice, of the Earth’s surface, of vegetation, of critical areas, of interaction with human activity, etc.), production and management of numerical simulations, the creation of optimal conditions for digital infrastructure to become a national resource available to the entire Italian community involved in research and education, and those active in the area of climate forecasts and climate change. The goal of the infrastructure is for our country to become a front-runner in cutting-edge climate research. Another goal is the development of technologies aimed at reaching climate objectives set by the PNRR for digital and green transition.

Activities

Spoke 4 activities are targeted at developing a common interdisciplinary framework for advanced modelling of the Earth system and numerical experiments. The framework will be based on digital infrastructures and efficient workflows to simplify production, facilitate training, speed up comprehension and improve the quality of simulations and of climate forecasts. Coherently to and in compliance with the European strategic agenda of Horizon Europe, Copernicus, Destination Earth and “A European Strategy for Data”, the activities will include (but not be limited to):

  • developing, optimising, and sharing components and parameterisations for a new generation of high-resolution ESM, made possible thanks to the wide IT infrastructure on hand;
  • taking full advantage of large observational data sets that will be made possible thanks to the use of digital technologies and through the convergence of new HPC  methodologies, big data, and artificial intelligence;
  • development of end-to-end skills, including increasing observations, assimilation, forecasts, post-elaboration, and the management of necessary data to deal with short- and long-term impacts, along with the assessment of the probability of high-impact events, low probability, and points of no return.
Istitution leader
cmcc
Istitution co-leader
CNR

Institutions and Universities

enea
universita-trento
logotipo fondazione-bruno-kessler
logotipo istituto nazionale di oceonografia e geofisica sperimentale
università del salento

Companies

Autostrade per l'Italia
logotipo Terna Driving Energy
Logo Eni
logotipo IFAB
logotipo sogei
Unipol Sai
logotipo engineering