{"id":79435,"date":"2026-02-21T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=79435"},"modified":"2026-02-20T20:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T03:58:44","slug":"a-climate-supercomputer-is-getting-new-bosses-its-not-clear-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/a-climate-supercomputer-is-getting-new-bosses-its-not-clear-who\/","title":{"rendered":"A climate supercomputer is getting new bosses. It\u2019s not clear who"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The U.S. National Science Foundation said that the management and operations of a supercomputer used by more than 4,000 climate and weather scientists across the country would be transferred from a leading research lab to an undisclosed third party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science foundation officials said stewardship of the supercomputer, located at a National Center for Atmospheric Research facility in Cheyenne, Wyo., would \u201ctransition to a third-party operator\u201d but declined to give details about the new operator or the timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national center, known as NCAR, has 835 scientists and engineers at its headquarters in Boulder, Colo., and has managed the Cheyenne facility since it opened in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement took many scientists by surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramalingam Saravanan, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, said he was concerned that he would no longer be able to run computer models that predict weather and climate conditions around the globe down to a scale of one square kilometer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you are able to use the computers just as before, we can do business as usual,\u201d Dr. Saravanan said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a bigger context, which is, they\u2019re dismantling other parts of NCAR as well, and this seems to be related to that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certain synergy in having different parts of an institution that work together,\u201d he added. \u201cIf it is dismantled, those synergies could be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marc Alessi, a climate science fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group, said researchers like himself were \u201cfreaking out a little bit\u201d because of the uncertainty. \u201cIf you talk to any meteorologist, climate scientist, we have all used this supercomputer,\u201d Dr. Alessi said. \u201cBut now, there\u2019s no clear guidelines about who it will go to or if scientists can continue using it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Science Foundation said in a statement it was \u201cworking with all parties to ensure continuity of operations, and additional information will be shared as it becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesman for the National Center for Atmospheric Research declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity\u2019s understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and oceans are widely used in disaster warning and weather forecasting around the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The supercomputer, named Derecho for a fast-moving and powerful type of wind storm, has the theoretical ability to perform 19.87 quadrillion calculations per second, using 328 graphics processing units built by Nvidia. That computing power is the equivalent of every person on the planet solving one calculation every second for a month, according to the NCAR website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 4,000 scientists use Derecho to study air pollution, wildfires, hurricanes and solar storms, among other climate and weather events. Scientists say understanding these phenomena requires the analysis of millions of pieces of data to identify trends that can help with warnings and emergency preparedness as well as basic science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado, a Democrat, said the Trump administration had targeted his state with various cuts, including a pipeline to deliver water to rural Coloradans and public health funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Trump administration has attacked both science and the state of Colorado through very specific budget cuts,\u201d Mr. Hickenlooper said in a statement. \u201cThis places NCAR directly in the cross hairs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December, White House officials announced that they planned to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, called the center \u201cone of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country\u201d and said that the federal government would be \u201cbreaking up\u201d the institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Vought wrote that a \u201ccomprehensive review is underway\u201d and that \u201cany vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n