Earth Sciences NZ unveils AI supercomputer to boost climate resilience

Earth Sciences New Zealand has announced the deployment of a new HPE AI-ready supercomputer, named Cascade, to enhance weather and environmental forecasting capabilities across the country.

The new Cascade system, based on the HPE Cray XD2000 platform, marks a significant upgrade from the organisation's previous high performance computing system. Cascade provides a threefold increase in computational power, allowing researchers to run multiple artificial intelligence-driven simulations at once and produce more accurate, timely weather predictions.

Cascade is powered by AMD 4th Gen EPYC processors and incorporates HPE GreenLake for File Storage, providing a simplified storage environment capable of managing up to 19 petabytes of data. This storage capability is designed to accelerate local scientific research efforts and facilitate faster decision-making in climate crisis situations.

One of the core features of Cascade is its direct liquid cooling (DLC) technology, which is intended to minimise energy consumption and water usage by efficiently cooling the computing cluster. The system's architecture is also designed for flexibility, enabling future expansion as computational needs grow. The data centre hosting the Cascade system runs on entirely renewable electricity sources.

"We're thrilled to partner with Earth Sciences New Zealand on this groundbreaking initiative," said Chris Weber, Vice President and Managing Director, South Pacific at HPE. "By delivering advanced HPC and AI capabilities, we're empowering New Zealand's leading climate and environmental researchers with the tools they need to drive scientific discovery and tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Importantly, we're able to maximise energy efficiency through direct liquid cooling and leverage renewable energy. This collaboration showcases the true potential of technology to make a meaningful impact, both locally and globally."

Earth Sciences New Zealand's new Cascade system represents the largest implementation in the Asia-Pacific region of HPE GreenLake for File, across both high performance and traditional enterprise computing. The investment underlines a commitment to furthering national preparedness and resilience before the ongoing impacts of climate change.

As an island nation, New Zealand faces particular challenges from atmospheric rivers – narrow corridors of moisture in the atmosphere which have the potential to produce intense rainfall events. This risk has driven the need for continuous advancements in modelling and forecasting techniques, an area where Earth Sciences New Zealand is internationally recognised for its work in climate, freshwater, geological resources, energy futures, and marine science.

"This upgrade with HPE Cray XD2000 marks a huge leap forward in our ability to understand and predict the environment around us," says Dr Jess Robertson, Chief Scientist - Advanced Technology at Earth Sciences New Zealand. "Enhancing scientific research with the advanced technology solutions gives us the tools to make smarter and safer decisions with confidence for New Zealand in a changing climate."

Alongside improvements in its core forecasting capability, Earth Sciences New Zealand aims for ongoing contribution to low-carbon economy initiatives, biodiversity protection, improvements in water quality, social equity, and regional development.

With the introduction of Cascade, operations are expected to benefit from enhanced data processing speeds and increased overall efficiency. Cascade was designed to support not only general environmental research but also advanced forecasting techniques, such as nowcasting. Nowcasting uses artificial intelligence to predict short-term, highly localised weather events, a capability that can assist with emergency responses to fires and extreme weather, as well as help integrate solar and wind energy into high-frequency energy markets.

By combining computational advances with environmentally sustainable infrastructure, Earth Sciences New Zealand positions itself to contribute to national and regional climate resilience strategies. Researchers now have a tool that allows for deeper analysis of environmental threats, enabling authorities to provide earlier warnings and informed responses to extreme weather events.

Image credited to Earth Sciences NZ_Supercomputer