The Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility, named “EarthLab”, is a numerical simulation system of the main Earth systems with matching software and hardware, and its comprehensive technical level will rank among its counterparts in the United States, Japan and Europe. It can help explore the impact of each system and its interaction with the Earth system as a whole, as well as the regional environment in China; integrate simulations and observation data to improve the accuracy of forecasting; improve the prediction and projection skills for climate change and air pollution; provide a numerical simulation platform to take Earth system research in China to the top level internationally; and support China's disaster prevention and mitigation, climate change, and atmospheric environment governance, along with other major issues. The global model of EarthLab will have a horizontal resolution of up to 10–25 km, and the spatial resolution of its regional high-precision simulation system will be able to reach 3 km over China and 1 km over certain key areas. The peak computing power of the system will be no less than 15 trillion times per second (PFLOPS), and the total storage capacity no less than 80 PB.
EarthLab is being developed by the IAP, Sugon, Tsinghua University, and the National Satellite Meteorological Center. The construction of CAS’ Huairou Campus in Beijing, to accommodate EarthLab, will begin at the end of 2017 and is expected to be completed by 2021.
