Building for NCAR’s future

We at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) enjoyed the article “Laboratory Architecture: Building for an Uncertain Future” (Physics Today, April 2010, page 40 ). However, we would like to correct a factual inaccuracy about our organization.

Although NCAR is planning construction of a new supercomputing center in Cheyenne, the project is still in the design and approval process; our operations remain in Boulder, Colorado, at this time.

The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center project is a collaborative partnership that is regionally valuable and offers the scientific community critical computing resources. NCAR weighed several location options and selected the Wyoming site because it combined the greatest increase in scientific benefits for the university community NCAR serves and the best value for taxpayer investment.

The founding vision of collaboration among scientists will remain a reality at the Mesa Lab, even if the supercomputing operations move. The significant changes in the NCAR computing facility will be in the length of the fiber-optic network, the greater efficiency of the new facility, and the 20-fold increase in computing power.

More information is available at http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/nwsc .