climate change experiment

[Shirley]

What do you think about this??

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/

We need the computer power you're not using. Join in the largest climate prediction experiment ever, developed by climate scientists for the BBC using the Met Office climate model.

We're organising the world's largest ever climate experiment, and we need your help.

We need thousands of people to help
Trying to predict climate change is hard. There are lots of factors involved – air temperature, sea temperature and cloud cover all play a part – as do dozens of other variables. Therefore, there are a huge number of calculations involved.

One solution is for scientists to use the largest supercomputer they can find. But even the biggest supercomputers are only so good.

We think you can do better.

Using a technique known as distributed computing, we’re hoping to harness the power of thousands of PCs around the world. If 10,000 people sign up, we’ll be faster than the world’s biggest computer. And we’re hoping to be even better than that.

More about climate prediction and distributed computing

What do we want you to do?


Use your model as a screensaver, and watch it progress as a detailed spinning globe.


Taking part is easy. All we’re asking you to do is download a simple programme, which doubles as a screensaver. Once you’ve installed it, your computer will take care of the rest. You don’t have to send us anything. You don’t have to enter any data. In fact – if you decide not set the programme as your screensaver, you probably won’t even notice it’s there.

However, if you want to, you can follow the progress of your experiment on a 3D spinning globe.

If I’m not doing anything, how am I helping?
The experiment works by making use of your spare processing power. All you have to do is use your computer exactly as you normally would, and the programme will run calculations in the background. When it’s done, it will send results back to scientists in Oxford, who will combine everyone’s results. The more people who take part, the more complete their predictions about the future climate will be.

The experiment has been created for the BBC by climateprediction.net, using BOINC software courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley.

The BBC makes no warranties or representations, either express or implied in relation to, and accepts no liability in respect of the software. You load and use the software at your own risk and the BBC will not be liable to you for any direct or indirect damages including for lost profits or for any other consequential loss arising from your use of or inability to use the software or from errors or deficiencies in it.

[ina]

using BOINC software courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley.

I think the computer geeks amongst us might be able to comment on that!

However, I do like that BOINC software... boinc, boinc, boinc...

[Shirley]

is there something to be commented on?? Will it make my computer self-destruct????


Anyway - there are some interesting programmes scheduled to coincide with this experiment - see here for more info http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/clima ... mes1.shtml