No. 2001 Plenary talk

Family name : Sato
Given name  : Tetsuya
Affiliation : Japan Marine Science Technology Center
Abbreviation : JAMSTEC
E-mail address : 

Title : The Earth Simulator and Science in the Future

Abstract : 
 The global environment that surrounds us, such as climate change and
diastrophism, etc. is a pattern woven with cross-wires ranging from a
scale of global to microscopic through generations of rain and  ice. Even
if, the fundamental laws of these elementary processes have been
understood respectively, we do not have technique to accurately draw  the
global woven pattern.  The computer simulation is the most promising
means of understanding and clarification that we have. This simulation
has been recognized as one of the means to reproduce a specific
phenomenon or to clarify its mechanism. However, in real performance
 the Earth Simulator far exceeds, by 100 times, any existing  simulator.
Even if it is thought of as a simple extension of current simulation
technique, it provides a very epoch-making, quantitative revolution.
Moreover, the Earth Simulator is so powerful that it provides the
possibility of not only a quantitative revolution but also qualitative
conversion of the simulation.
 Development of the Earth Simulator began in April, 1977 and was
completed at the end of February in 2002. The activity of the Earth
Simulator Center started in March, 2002, and the breathtaking
performance in an atmospheric circulation simulation (AFES) of 26.58
Teraflops (65% of the peak performance) was shown in April,
 2002. These results generated a great ripple of excitement within research
communities throughout the world.
In this lecture, I will talk about some examples of the recent results
and plans for the future.