SDL ESS’s goals are to investigate new software and programming concepts to enable compute- and data-intensive ESS on current and next-generation supercomputing architectures and to provide high-level user support for Earth system modeling (ESM) and large-scale data analytics. Closely collaborating with IT and  hardware experts, the SDL enables Earth system scientists to conduct and analyze simulations with impact on the solution of challenges related to climate change, air pollution, and ecosystem functions. The SDL’s work program focuses on the optimization of Earth system models with regard to performance and scalability, as well as the portability of these models to new hardware architectures of modular supercomputing systems.

SDL-ESS develops tools and libraries to enable simulations on future extreme-scale computing systems by developing a strategic approach to handle performance portability and support new emerging technologies for fast I/O-layers. The SDL has demonstrated competencies in the analysis of the computational and I/O demands of Earth system models, in porting model codes to new hardware architectures, and in enabling efficient handling when generating and archiving high-resolution spatial and temporal data, for example by improving lossy and lossless compression of data.