IBM supercomputers will soon be used for the work of global weather forecasting systems and a more accurate forecast at the regional level.

Weather Company, the "daughter" of IBM, announced today at the International Supercomputing Conference in Frankfurt about plans to improve the quality of global weather forecast under a new project with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research Atmospheric research (NCAR).

The Alliance will focus on developing the most advanced models that will be based on IBM next-generation supercomputing technologies, combining the achievements in weather meteorology, the knowledge and experience in the use of IBM Research computers, supercomputer systems based on OpenPOWER and the NCAR model of local weather forecasting.

Modern technologies allow forecasting large-scale meteorological changes that affect regional weather, such as blizzards and hurricanes.

The new model can improve weather and climate forecasting by taking fuller account of small-scale phenomena such as thunderstorms that can affect the weather.

IBM will join UCAR to jointly design a computational solution using processors on the new POWER9 architecture, which will be launched at the end of the year. Weather Company will use this computational solution to adapt the NCAR model for use in weather forecasting on a global scale and to improve the quality of long-term forecasts in order to make more precise calculations for weeks or months ahead.