China’s EarthLab—Forefront of Earth System Simulation Research

• Published in: Advances in atmospheric sciences Vol. 38; no. 10; pp. 1611 - 1620
• Main Authors: Chai, Zhaoyang, Zhang, He, Zhang, Mulan, Tang, Xiao, Zheng, Weipeng, Zhu, Jiang, Zhou, Guangqing, Cao, Junji, Zeng, Qingcun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Science Press 01-10-2021; Springer Nature B.V; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China%Institute of Atmospheric Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029,China; Institute of Atmospheric Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029,China
• Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; Biosphere; Climate system; Computation; Cryosphere; Data assimilation; Data base management systems; Data collection; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Emergency preparedness; Geophysics/Geodesy; Hydrosphere; Lithosphere; Mathematical models; Meteorology; Mitigation; News & Views; Numerical simulations; Simulation; Space weather; China; 高性能计算平台; 地球系统数值模拟; EarthLab; earth system numerical simulation; 数字地球实验室 (寰); high-performance computing platform
• ISSN: 0256-1530; 1861-9533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00376-021-1175-y

This article introduces “EarthLab”, a major new Earth system numerical simulation facility developed in China. EarthLab is a numerical simulation system for a physical climate system, an environmental system, an ecological system, a solid earth system, and a space weather system as a whole with a high-performance scientific computing platform. EarthLab consists of five key elements—namely: a global earth numerical simulation system, a regional high-precision simulation system, a supercomputing support and management system, a database, data assimilation and visualization system, and a high-performance computing system for earth sciences. EarthLab helps to study the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, as well as their interactions, to improve the accuracy of predictions by integrating simulations and observations, and to provide a scientific foundation for major issues such as national disaster prevention and mitigation. The construction and operation of EarthLab will involve close cooperation with joint contributions and shared benefits.