The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently strengthened its supercomputing capacity after adding a 1.65-Petaflops PARAM Ambar to its network. PARAM Ambar (Advanced Machine for Basic Atmospheric Research) offers high throughput storage of 2 Petabytes and archival capacity of 1 Petabytes. Inaugurated by ISRO chairman K Sivan recently, PARAM Ambar is one of the space agency's largest operational computational facilities. Developed by Pune-headquartered Centre for Development of Advanced Computing ( C-DAC), the supercomputer will serve disaster management agencies in a big way. It will also be used for climate modelling, carrying out research related to atmospheric and oceanic processes, and for real-time weather forecasting. Alongside climate research, Ambar will also be used for ISRO's monitoring networks dedicated for prediction of heavy rainfall evidences, air quality, prediction of genesis, occurrence and intensification of deep convections or cloud bursts, assimilation of satellite radiances in atmospheric and oceanic models, and centennial scale climate modelling, among other functions.
