The “Yin-Yang” grid, or “tennis ball” grid, is under consideration for use in future climate models.

Making a timely weather forecast, or running a high-resolution global climate model, requires the use of a massive supercomputer. Simulations that would take months to run on a normal computer take just hours on a supercomputer. However, supercomputers are far from magic. Programs have to be designed in very specific ways in order to make full use of a supercomputer’s capabilities. It is well-known that current weather and climate models will be incapable of making good use of future supercomputers. Next-generation models will need some drastic changes in order to make better use of the supercomputers that they will run on. This Snack explains what the problem with current models is and explains why it will be necessary to change the underlying grid that the model uses.