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Frontier’s exascale power enables the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model to run years’ worth of climate simulations at unprecedented speed and scale. Credit: Ben Hillman/Sandia National Laboratories, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A 19-member team of scientists from across the national laboratory complex won the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2023 Gordon Bell Special Prize for Climate Modeling for developing a model that uses the world’s first exascale supercomputer to simulate decades’ worth of cloud formations.

Gina Tourassi. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy 

Effective Dec. 4, Gina Tourassi will assume responsibilities as associate laboratory director for the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ORNL researchers are establishing a digital thread of data, algorithms and workflows to produce a continuously updated model of earth systems.

Digital twins are exactly what they sound like: virtual models of physical reality that continuously update to reflect changes in the real world.

 

Front row: Victoria DiStefano and Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe of DOE toured the SPRUCE experiment with Natalie Griffiths, Melanie Mayes, and Verity Salmon; back row: Dave Weston, Stephen Sebestyen (US Forest Service), Jonathan Stelling, Mark Guilliams, John Latimer (ORNL contractor), Kyle Pearson and Paul Hanson. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The first climate scientist to head the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Dr. Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, recently visited two ORNL-led field research facilities in Minnesota and Alaska to witness how these critically important projects are informing our understanding of the future climate and its impact on communities.

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory contributed to several chapters of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, providing expertise in complex ecosystem processes, energy systems, human dynamics, computational science and Earth-scale modeling. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL used their knowledge of complex ecosystem processes, energy systems, human dynamics, computational science and Earth-scale modeling to inform the nation’s latest National Climate Assessment, which draws attention to vulnerabilities and resilience opportunities in every region of the country.

Frontier’s exascale power enables the Energy, Exascale and Earth System Model-Multiscale Modeling Framework — or E3SM-MMF — project to run years’ worth of climate simulations at unprecedented speed and scale. Credit: Mark Taylor/Sandia National Laboratories, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The world’s first exascale supercomputer will help scientists peer into the future of global climate change and open a window into weather patterns that could affect the world a generation from now.

Logo that reads U.S. Department of Energy INCITE Leadership Computing

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science has allocated supercomputer access to a record-breaking 75 computational science projects for 2024 through its Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment, or INCITE, program. DOE is awarding 60% of the available time on the leadership-class supercomputers at DOE’s Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories to accelerate discovery and innovation. 

ORNL scientists developed a method that improves the accuracy of the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing tool used to modify microbes for renewable fuels and chemicals production. This research draws on the lab’s expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Credit: Philip Gray/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools work on organisms like microbes that can be modified to produce renewable fuels and chemicals.

ORNL’s Ben Sulman and Shannon Jones at a mangrove habitat in Port Aransas, Texas

To better understand important dynamics at play in flood-prone coastal areas, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists working on simulations of Earth’s carbon and nutrient cycles paid a visit to experimentalists gathering data in a Texas wetland.

The ORNL DAAC gathers, processes, archives and distributes information on key land processes, including the shifting ecological and geomorphological features of the U.S. Atchafalaya and Terrebonne basins gathered by the NASA Delta-X mission shown here. Credit: NASA Delta-X

In 1993 as data managers at ORNL began compiling observations from field experiments for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the information fit on compact discs and was mailed to users along with printed manuals.