NSW regional climate modelling project supercharged by NCI collaboration

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) has become the latest Major Collaborator of National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), home of one of Australia’s most powerful supercomputers. 

This commitment gives the Department access to significant computing and data resources at NCI, as well as a voice in NCI’s strategic decisions. Most critically, the supercomputing facilities enable the NSW Government’s team of climate modelling experts to produce updated climate change projections.

This partnership advances our ability to provide detailed computer-modelled climate projections that help government, industry and community plan for the future

Matthew Riley, NSW DPE Director of Climate and Atmospheric Science. 

The Gadi supercomputer, run by National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) in Canberra, is essential for the team of NSW Government climate modelling experts working on the NSW and Australian Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM2.0) project.  

Thanks to NCI, NARCliM2.0 is generating over 40 times the amount of climate data than NARCliM1.0.  This is in part due to the improved data resolution of NARCliM2.0 at 4 km across south-east Australia, and 20 km across Australasia.

NCI Director Professor Sean Smith is thrilled to see another Major Collaborator join the NCI Collaboration. He says, “The New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment have been NCI users since 2019, continually increasing their use of our platforms over that time. This long-term commitment recognises the strategic value of high-performance computing and data analytics to reaching state government goals.”

NARCliM2.0 is the third generation produced by the NSW Government in partnership with the ACT, South Australian and Western Australian Government, NCI – National Computation Infrastructure, with input from the University of New South Wales and Murdoch University.