News & Features 2024
Donovan Mathias Named NAS Division Chief
NASA Ames has announced the appointment of Dr. Donovan Mathias as the chief of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division, effective December 29. 2024. Mathias joined NASA in 1993. He previously served as the acting chief and deputy chief of the NAS Division, and led the Asteroid Threat Assessment Project (ATAP) and the Engineering Risk Assessment (ERA) team at Ames.
Ready, Set, Action! Our Sun is the Star in Dazzling Simulation
NASA supercomputers are shedding light on what causes some of the Sun’s most complex behaviors. Using data from the suite of active Sun-watching spacecraft currently observing the star at the heart of our solar system, researchers can explore solar dynamics like never before. Scientists in the NAS Division ran realistic models on the Pleiades, Electra, and Aitken supercomputers, allowing them to study the physics of solar plasma from tiny to large scales.
Exploring New Frontiers: HPC Infrastructure with NASA at SC24
Recorded at SC24, NASA's High-End Computing Capability Component Manager Bill Thigpen talks about the data demands of modern satellites and the impressive infrastructure required on the ground to support the uninterrupted flow of information about our planet—and everything beyond.
Hollywood Techniques Help NASA Visualize Supercomputing Data
Using the Discover supercomputer at the Center for Climate Simulation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, visualizers use datasets generated by supercomputer models to create highly detailed, accurate, and stunning visualizations with Hollywood filmmaking tools like 3D modeling and animation. This work is one of many research projects—including exciting investigations run on systems at the NAS facility—showcased in NASA’s exhibit during SC24.
Six Ways Supercomputing Advances Our Understanding of the Universe
From understanding our own planet to exploring the farthest reaches of the cosmos, supercomputers are essential to NASA science and engineering — including space weather research, AI-based models for weather and climate science, fuel-efficient aircraft design, optimizing the launch environment for the Artemis Program, and revealing the mysteries of neutron stars. These projects are just a sample of the many that were on display in NASA’s exhibit during SC24.
NASA Research Projects Highlighted at SC24
Take a look at the NASA@SC24 website to see fascinating images and videos, and explore the latest science, engineering, and technology achievements highlighted this year at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, November 17–22 in Atlanta—all made possible by NASA high-end computing!
A Window into the Universe: NASA ‘hyperwall’ Advances Data Visualization at a Massive Scale
A massive visualization system that spans a large stretch of a wall at NASA’s Ames Research Center is having a big impact on scientists who are traveling from all over the world to pore over the display for research. The new hyperwall is a 300 square-foot display that gives scientists the opportunity to see and analyze high-dimensional data at an unprecedented scale and in great detail.
Find out more about the new hyperwall at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility.
Congratulations to NASA’s Europa Clipper Team on its Successful Launch!
In advance of Europa Clipper’s arrival at Jupiter’s icy moon in 2030, NASA and university researchers are using NAS systems to model phenomena such as ocean circulation beneath the moon's ice, magnetic and particle interactions between Europa and Jupiter, and possible states of the moon's interior. Their findings may help interpret observations from Clipper's mission: to search for conditions that could support life!
Modeling of Large Asteroid Impacts for Planetary Defense
Researchers in the NAS Division ran a large simulation on NASA’s Aitken supercomputer, showing the blast formation of a large imaginary asteroid. In the simulation, the asteroid’s entry and impact releases over 10 gigatons of energy in the atmosphere and on the ground. The team supports the agency’s work to find possible threatening near-Earth objects, coordinate global Planetary Defense efforts, and study technologies to mitigate these threats. See the featured video in the NAS Scientific Visualization Gallery.
Find out more about the NAS Division's asteroid risk assessment work.
NAS Supports Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, ‘Red Rover’ Team
Earlier this year, the NAS Division’s Research & Development team, in collaboration with the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel team at NASA’s Ames Research Center, developed and deployed a complex data streaming and analysis system called Red Rover. The initial test streamed data from wind tunnel cameras to the UPWT data cache system, from which sensor data flowed to the NAS facility for further analysis and evaluation in the HECC environment.
Find out more about the NAS Division's wind tunnel test work.
NASA Ames to Host Supercomputing Resources for UC Berkeley Researchers
Under a new agreement, NASA will host supercomputing resources for the University of California, Berkeley at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility – the agency’s premiere supercomputing center. The agreement is part of an expanding partnership between Ames and UC Berkeley and will support the development of novel computing algorithms and software for a wide variety of scientific and technology areas.
Find out more about the NASA-UC Berkeley agreement at the NAS facility.
NASA’s Upgraded Hyperwall Offers Improved Data Visualization
In May, the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, celebrated the newest generation of its hyperwall system, a wall of LCD screens that display supercomputer-scale visualizations of the very large datasets produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments.
Solution to Ancient Astronomy Puzzle to Aid Solar Storm Warnings
Using simulations run on NASA's Pleiades supercomputer, an international research team led by the University of Edinburgh discovered that the dynamo process generating the Sun's magnetic field originates from a relatively close 20,000 miles below the surface. Reported in the journal Nature, the discovery provides a vital clue in a mystery that has puzzled solar observers since the time of Galileo.
Defending the Planet: How NASA Supercomputers Capture Hypothetical Asteroid Impacts
Supporting the NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office, scientists in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division's Computational Aerosciences Branch have kept their eyes close to Earth recently—focusing on what might occur if our planet should someday get hit by an asteroid, and what we might be able to do to mitigate the damage.
Learn more about NAS supercomputers support NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
NASA Experts Break Ground in Simulations for Urban Air Mobility Safety
Researchers in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division have developed new simulations that incorporate ground effect into their studies on the aerodynamic flow around urban air mobility vehicles (UAMs). The ground effect—where the ground surface is added to the computational model—is an important factor in making sure that real-world products are safe and efficient when released by industry manufacturers in the future.
New GPU-Based Supercomputer Speeds Computations for NASA Research Projects
A new graphics processing unit (GPU)-based supercomputer has been added to the stable of NASA high-end computing resources operated by systems experts at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at the agency’s Ames Research Center. Named Cabeus after a lunar crater near the Moon’s south pole, the system is already providing NAS users with several petaflops of computational power and will increase the agency’s capability to run artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads that can benefit from GPU technology.
Find out more about the Cabeus supercomputer and the NASA project running on the system.
Apply Now for the 2024 NASA GPU Hackathon:
Deadline June 5
It’s not too early to apply for the 2024 NASA GPU Hackathon, to be held on September 10 and September 17-19. Whether your code is a traditional high-performance computing-centric application or if your goal focuses on artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies, please apply to participate in this event!
Get further details and important deadlines for the 2024 GPU Hackathon.
TESS Researchers Discover Six-Planet System Using New Algorithms
An international group of scientists have recently uncovered a remarkable system of six exoplanets from data collected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Their years of planetary detective work—which began with light curve processing on the Pleiades supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility—was detailed in a paper published in Nature.
Read about how TESS researchers discovered a strange six-planet system.
