Climate Prediction and Digital Preservation: Predicting the Future and Preserving the Past

Introduction

This is a Joint Session with North Wales & Chester Branch, with presentations given at RAL and DL, brought together using a video conference link.

The presentations on Climate Prediction and Digital Preservation will be given by senior consultants from Tessella Support Services, a consultany which uses a unique blend of scientific, engineering and It skills to solve the most complex technical and business problems.

Abstract

Two of the biggest problems facing society could be Global Warming and Loss of Digital Data. This presentation will address some of the issues involved, and potential solutions.

One presentation will review the climateprediction.net project; the world's largest experiment to try to produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. To do this, people around the world give time on their computers – time when they have their computers switched on, but are not using them to their full capacity.
Keith Norman will look at the background to the experiment, and how software is helping scientists to understand the global climate.

The second presentation will consider some of the issues surrounding Digital Preservation: ensuring that the digital information we create and store today will continue to be accessible for as long as we may need it. Industry commentators have raised the prospect of a 'digital dark age' stretching from the late 20th to the early 21st century, as huge amounts of digital information are at risk of being lost.
Peter Lloyd will discuss the problems and some of the solutions based on experience assisting a number of clients throughout the world.

Press Release

Climate Prediction and Digital Preservation: Predicting the Future and Preserving the Past

Venue: CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire; CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory at Daresbury in Cheshire
Date: 26 October 2006, 7:00pm for 7:30pm

The British Computer Society presents two talks on how information technology is being used to predict the future and preserve the past. The first talk reviews the climateprediction.net project; which is the world's largest experiment to attempt to forecast the climate of the 21st century. The second talk, on digital preservation, looks at how we can ensure that the digital information we create today will continue to be accessible for as long as we may need it.

This session is one of the first by the BCS to be based in two locations – with one talk at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire, the other at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire. Attendees at each site will be able to attend both talks via the use of a video link. The Oxfordshire and Chester & North Wales branches of the BCS are organising this event, with the talks being given by senior consultants from Tessella Support Services.

In order to predict the world's climate for the 21st century it is necessary to run sophisticated computer models that require vast amounts of computer processing power to run, so extremely long runs on supercomputers would be needed to get meaningful results. climateprediction.net, developed by a partnership between the Universities of Oxford and Reading, the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Tessella, the Met Office, and others, distributes a version of the model to tens of thousands of members of the public for running on home and office PCs. Each model has a different set of parameters, and runs in the background for several months on each PC,
returning data to a central server. In this way it is possible to create a distributed, single purpose, supercomputer at a very low cost which has a processing capacity much greater than any existing supercomputers. Dr Keith Norman from Tessella will present this talk, looking at the background to the experiment, and how software is helping scientists to understand the global climate.

Technology is now changing so fast that standard business computers of two decades ago are consigned to museums. In this context, industry commentators have raised the prospect of a 'digital dark age' stretching from the late 20th to the early 21st century, as huge
amounts of digital information are at risk of being lost. The second of the talks will explore the issues surrounding Digital Preservation and how we ensure that the digital information we create and store today will continue to be accessible for as long as we may need it.
Peter Lloyd of Tessella will discuss the problems and some of the solutions based on experience assisting a number of clients throughout the world.

Admission is free, and open to non-members, but you must register for this
event as spaces are limited. Please register your interest in an e-mail to events-cnw@bcs.org.uk. The event starts at 6:30pm at both locations with coffee and sandwiches, with the talks proper beginning at 7:00pm.

Notes for editors

Established in 1957, the British Computer Society (BCS) is the leading body for those working in IT.

With a world-wide membership now over 50,000 members in over 100 countries, BCS is the qualifying body for Chartered IT Professionals (CITP).

BCS was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1984. Its objects are to promote the study and practice of computing and to advance knowledge of and education in IT for the benefit of the public. BCS is also a registered charity.

BCS is licensed by the Engineering Council to award Chartered Engineer status (CEng) and Incorporated Engineer status (IEng); and more recently by the Science Council to award Chartered Scientist status (CSci).

Founded in 1980, Tessella specializes in the application of innovative software solutions to scientific, technical and engineering problems, and its offices within the UK, US and the Netherlands have built long-term relationships with organizations at the leading edge of the scientific and engineering world. Tessella is vendor independent and recommends 'best of breed' solutions, whether this involves custom software development or off-the-shelf solutions

Further information

General background on Grid Computing Grid Computing or more specifically on ClimatePrediction.net.

Further background on Digital Preservation is summarised at Preserving Access to Digital Information

Committee owner: Brian Day