The NWSC, which houses one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers dedicated to the geosciences, officially opened in October, as scientists at NCAR and universities across the country launched a series of initial scientific projects on the center’s flagship supercomputer, called Yellowstone.

First in the queue for the NCAR-Wyoming Yellowstone system is a set of 11 computing-intensive projects tackling major problems in Earth and atmospheric science.

State-of-the-art computing and big-data processing have been part of NCAR from the center’s earliest years. Here’s a snapshot of selected milestones in hardware improvement.

The nation’s newest computing facility for atmospheric and related science is poised to take the nation’s infrastructure for weather prediction, climate projection, space weather, and other key tasks to the next level.

The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center’s creation emerged through a fortuitous mix of geography, technology, organizations, and people ready to make connections. We asked two of the principals involved to share the story.