1. 08 July 1997, 11:45 UT, GOES-8 IR image http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/misc/970708.html

2. Using MM5 James R. Kirk Dan Bennett kirkj@edinboro.edu dbennett@edinboro.edu

3. MM5 ● 5 th generation mesoscale model from ncar/upenn ● Used by many universities and government agencies. ● Can perform nested simulations ● Referred to a Primitive Equation (PE) model because meteorological fields are predicted from the basic equations of physics

4. Mesoscale Convective Complexes MCC ● A hurricane size precipitating storm system with embedded clusters of thunderstorms ● More than 100,000 KM 2 ● Often last 6 to 12 hours and produce as much as 8 inches of rain ● One in four MCCs result in injuries or death from severe weather (tornadoes) or flooding

5. 08 July 1997, 18:45 UT, GEOS-8 IR image http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/misc/970708.html

6. Using MM5 in Atmospheric Physics ● Provides data for unmeasured portions of the atmosphere at regular time intervals ● Data can be used to diagnose fundamental processes occurring in the atmosphere ● Provides an opportunity to visualize atmospheric systems and their evolution ● Provides a mechanism for testing theoretical models

7. Running MM5 ● Our Platform: – 2.6 GHz. Pentium IV – 2.0 GB main memory ● May 19, 2004 case: – 70x70 outer grid at 36 km – 100x100 inner grid at 12 km – 3600 minuets simulated – 128 minutes for simulation – 28 simulated hours/hour MM5 Parallel Performance, J. Michalakes, Argonne, UCAR

8. Mesoscale Convective Vortex MCV ● A cyclonic vortex typically found in MCCs that has tangential winds from 1 to 10 meters per second at a radial distance of approximately 50 km or more ● MCVs are linked to the redevelopment of severe weather over several days. The Johnstown flood of 1977 that killed 76 people was an MCC that redeveloped over Pennsylvania from a pre-existing MCV ● MCVs are sometimes the “starter vortex” for tropical depressions and hurricanes.

9. Origins of MCVs ● MCCs form in regions where there is strong daytime heating spawning thunderstorms and low-level moist winds feeding the thunderstorms with additional unstable air ● The typical MCV structure can be achieved by different evolutionary paths or organizational modes ● Diagnosing the organizational modes of MCV formation is performed by using MM5 data to compute the terms in the vorticity equation

10. Viz5D+

11. Braveheart Cluster Computer Science Dept. – Hardware ● 16 3.4 GHz. P-5 ● Gigabit ethernet ● 24 GB memory – Projects ● Bennett’s Research ● Student Projects – Administration – MPI Programming – Distributed OS Projects – Distributed Visualization

12. James R. Kirk ● PhD Candidate UPENN ● Investigating the origins of MCVs ● Has shown that multiple evolutionary paths are possible ● Is currently creating a method to be used to define the various organizational modes in MCVs

13. Cases Studied June 21 1997 May 6, 2000

14. MM5 Code ● Approximately 76,000 lines of Fortran Code in MM5 ● Parallelized by Argonne National Labs ● Suite of auxiliary programs to deal with data

15. Dan Bennett ● PhD Candidate KSU ● Interested in steering and visualization middle- ware for steering cluster based scientific computations ● Investigating the extraction of data from running instances of MM5