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Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of key weather and climate research center
From CNN
Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of key weather and climate research center
By
Andrew Freedman
Published Feb 13, 2026, 1:47 PM ET
A leading American research lab is slated to lose its critical supercomputing facility, according to a letter released Thursday by the National Science Foundation.
The move is part of the Trump administrations effort to disassemble the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, one of the worlds top weather and climate research centers, which the admin views as a source of climate change alarmism.
The computing center, which is slated to be turned over to an unspecified third party, runs weather and climate research models and is used by about 1,500 researchers from over 500 universities around the country. The work done on this supercomputer benefits the American people by leading to more accurate forecasts of extreme weather and climate events, aircraft turbulence and more.
The problem with spinning off the computing center away from the research center is that it could disrupt access to high performance computing. Much as with AI, high power computing is essential for simulating weather and climate and for evaluating the accuracy of new forecast models, which eventually end up contributing to what Americans see in the weather apps each day.
NOAA, for example, just chose to upgrade its next-generation computer models using a system developed by NCAR researchers known as Modeling for Prediction Across Scales. The agency also relies on the supercomputing facility to run some of its current models.
By
Andrew Freedman
Published Feb 13, 2026, 1:47 PM ET
A leading American research lab is slated to lose its critical supercomputing facility, according to a letter released Thursday by the National Science Foundation.
The move is part of the Trump administrations effort to disassemble the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, one of the worlds top weather and climate research centers, which the admin views as a source of climate change alarmism.
The computing center, which is slated to be turned over to an unspecified third party, runs weather and climate research models and is used by about 1,500 researchers from over 500 universities around the country. The work done on this supercomputer benefits the American people by leading to more accurate forecasts of extreme weather and climate events, aircraft turbulence and more.
The problem with spinning off the computing center away from the research center is that it could disrupt access to high performance computing. Much as with AI, high power computing is essential for simulating weather and climate and for evaluating the accuracy of new forecast models, which eventually end up contributing to what Americans see in the weather apps each day.
NOAA, for example, just chose to upgrade its next-generation computer models using a system developed by NCAR researchers known as Modeling for Prediction Across Scales. The agency also relies on the supercomputing facility to run some of its current models.
Read more at https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/weather/trump-colorado-lab-ncar-supercomputer-climate
I have a retired relative who participated in the modeling done at NCAR for many years. They started with the early Cray supercomputer. https://www.cisl.ucar.edu/ncar-supercomputing-history/c1
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Trump admin is pulling supercomputers out of key weather and climate research center (Original Post)
Yonnie3
Saturday
OP
Ocelot II
(129,863 posts)1. So if we don't know about it, it's not happening. Right?
Yonnie3
(19,317 posts)2. Mythically it is said that ostriches hide their heads in the sand
That's actually not true, but it brings the thought to me that the administration's heads are hidden in another spot rather than in the sand.
ret5hd
(22,381 posts)3. About time we started using them for something productive...
probably bitcoin mining.