SGER: Feasibility of Taking the MAS (Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere) Model to Petascale

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is an exploratory activity intended to test the application of new expertise and techniques in performance modeling and optimization to the numerical simulation of the solar corona. It encompasses preliminary work to determine the feasibility of a future effort to develop a petascale version of the Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere model (MAS). If MAS and similar models can be adapted to run well on large-scale computational resources, such as forthcoming petascale systems, then it will be possible for researchers to extend the range of multi-scale physical problems associated with the solar corona, such as coronal mass ejections, that can be studied with these models. The project is one of a series of pilot projects spawned by a workshop on "Petascale Computing and the Geosciences" in Spring 2006. The purpose of these pilot activities, all related to the use of high-performance computational modeling in different parts of the geosciences, is to determine how the simulation tools used in leading-edge geoscience research can be adapted for the very large-scale computing systems that will be deployed in the next few years. The results of these analyses will be discussed at a second workshop on "Petascale Computing and the Geosciences" in Fall 2006. This SGER project involves a collaboration between computer scientists from University of California-San Diego (UCSD), who specialize in the detailed analysis and optimization of numerical applications, and space physicists from Science Application International (SAIC) involved in the further development of MAS as part of the activities of the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling. Broader impacts of this work stem from the improvement of a tool that is potentially useful for both space physics research and for operational space weather forecasting.