----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Tobis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: gmane.science.general.global-change To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 9:27 AM Subject: [Global Change: 1649] Re: Interesting DOE initiative
> > I'm attending a meeting about this iniative this week and intend to > distribute some ideas as grey literature in the hopes of influencing a > scientific culture toward approaching global change from an > engineering perspctive. > > My initial reaction to the DOE initiative was deep skepticism. If it's > Sim Earth, it's certainly writ large. The target platform is computers > 1000 times more powerful than any currently in existence. > > I have come around. I think that the systems engineering perspective > can, with care, make effective use of such large resources. I am > working on a broad brush explanation of how this might happen. I will > nevertheless admit that it is much easier to use such vast resources > ineffectively, and that the odds of that happening are substantial at > the very least. > > Your idea seems entirely reasonable. I think the process by which > procedures like a new EGEAS (note that this is the first I've heard of > EGEAS) is developed in fact could benefit from very large > computations, and with your permission I will quote you in trying to > make such a case. > > One perverse aspect of all this is that if we can't make a case for > this as a very largeh scale supercomputing application, (and I admit > that my argument that it can will be outside scope of conventional > wisdom) it will be difficult to arouse interest within this program, > and if it isn't "Big Science" in one form or another, it's hard to see > it emerging from today's DOE at all. > > mt Quote at will. The EGEAS is a product of EPRI , and operating it is apparently a service of EPRI: http://www.epriweb.com/public/ES-TRANS-IRP-SO.pdf . Developed in the 1980's, I'm guessing it could run on a serial processor micro or mini computer - so much for the "wow" factor. Supercomputing power might help to model transmission network upgrades and how they interact with or constrain generation portfolios. Caveat emptor: my electrical engineering credentials are strictly amateur. -dl --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
