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Navy's supercomputing center for weather forecasting (pictures)

The Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Center in Monterey, Calif., provides weather forecasting for a wide variety of sea-based military and defense organizations.

Daniel Terdiman
Daniel Terdiman is a senior writer at CNET News covering Twitter, Net culture, and everything in between.
Daniel Terdiman
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Wave heights

MONTEREY, Calif.--Throughout the world, the U.S. Navy patrols the seas, and requires the best weather forecasting it can get to keep its vessels and its personnel -- not to mention its missions -- safe.

In this coastal town, about two hours south of San Francisco, the Navy operates the Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Center, a facility filled with supercomputers and a highly skilled team that, together, help to provide the service and other government agencies with the best-possible weather forecasting.

CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman stopped in on the facility yesterday as part of his Road Trip 2012 project. Among the many missions Fleet Numerical, as it's known, undertakes what is the global Submarine Weather support system (SUBWEAX), which since 2008 has been instrumental in offering submarines the latest forecasts on weather at the surface.

One thing submarines would be very interested in is the height of waves at the surface. This chart, which is publicly available through Fleet Numerical's Web site, shows a forecast for global wave heights. Decision makers all around the world can use that data to help their missions become as efficient as possible.

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Logo

The logo of Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Center, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

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Computer systems watch officer

In Fleet Numerical's watch center, two computer systems watch officers are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, handling all incoming satellite data, taking care of operational data runs, monitoring computers runs, and ensuring that more than 60,000 weather-related jobs per day are processed without problems that could endanger lives or missions.

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Sauer and supercomputer racks

Fleet Numerical's commanding officer is Capt. Erika Sauer, seen here standing in front of some of the racks that make up the facility's unclassified supercomputing system. Fleet Numerical has unclassified, secret, and top secret missions, each category of which has its own dedicated supercomputers.

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Close-up of racks

A close-up of some of the unclassified supercomputer racks in Fleet Numerical's data center. The facility runs high-performance computing that is comprised of clusters of commodity Linux machines.

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Improvements in weather forecasting accuracy

This chart, provided by Fleet Numerical, shows the relative improvements in its weather forecasting abilities over the years. The data shows that, for example, its level of accuracy today for a five-day forecast is as good as it was in 1988 for a three-day forecast.

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Team Hampton photo

Located in a hallway at Fleet Numerical's facilities is a series of signed photographs that reflect the gratitude a number of submarine and ship commanders have for the work done at the center. This one, from the commanding officer of the submarine USS Hampton, says "Thank you for your team's efforts & hard work! You ensure my safety and enhance my tactical advantage!"

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USS Albuquerque

This photograph, from the commanding officer of the USS Albuquerque, also reflects the gratitude of people aboard operational U.S. Navy submarines for the work done at Fleet Numerical. It says, "To the FNMOC Team: Thank you for your outstanding METOC support. We couldn't do what we do without SUBWEAX!"

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Surface temperatures

This chart, generated by Fleet Numerical's supercomputers, shows surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, and along the eastern seaboard of the United States.

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Wind wave height and direction

This chart, generated by Fleet Numerical, shows wind wave height and direction in the Atlantic Ocean and along the U.S. eastern seaboard.

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Anti-piracy

One example of how information from Fleet Numerical is used in real-life operational situations is this chart showing its impact on anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. There, pirates have been regularly attacking vessels, but by forecasting the kinds of conditions -- involving wave height, winds, weather, and so forth -- favored by the pirates, Fleet Numerical is able to give the American military advance information that allows them to be in the area before the pirates, and potentially intercede before anyone is attacked or harmed.

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Gulf accident

Another example of how Fleet Numerical's information is used is this chart, which shows how its data was able to help the fleet working in the Gulf of Mexico after 2010's catastrophic Deepwater Horizon accident. By being able to predict winds and wave heights 72 hours into the future, Fleet Numerical gave operators valuable information that could help them predict where recovery work would best be done.

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Rack rears

A look at the rear of a row of supercomputer racks in Fleet Numerical's unclassified data center in Monterey, Calif.

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Consulting with the Air Force

Although Fleet Numerical is a Navy facility, it works in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force on some areas of operations. That means the Air Force maintains personnel at the facility, and seen here, Navy and Air Force personnel consult during a normal work shift.

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DataDirect Networks racks

A row of DataDirect Network computer clusters, part of Fleet Numerical's unclassified supercomputer data center.

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Dell racks

Most of the computers in the data center are Dell Linux machines.

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Monitor

Seen in the watch center, this computer monitor reflects real-time weather data in and around the continental United States.

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Satellite data processing equipment

This TeraScan machine from Network Systems is used specifically for processing incoming data sent by satellites.

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Supercomputer breakdown

This chart shows the kinds of supercomputing equipment and power utilized at Fleet Numerical. The green area represents the working unclassified supercomputer system, while red and purple represent secret and top secret supercomputers.

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World clocks

The watch center has a digital read-out on the wall showing the current time in Monterey and in countries throughout the U.S. military's global sphere of influence.

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