New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS): The union cabinet Thursday gave its nod to a High Performance Computing (HPC) system, to the tune of Rs.567.16 crore, paving the way for simulations for improved weather, climate and ocean forecasts, a statement said.

The approval was given by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at its meeting here, an official statement said.

The installation of the HPC system and the enhanced computing infrastructure (during the 12th Plan period) will also aid in providing reliable weather and climate services to the end users such as farmers, fishermen and other stakeholders in the government and neighbouring countries.

The petaflops-scale HPC facility along with sustained supporting infrastructure such as UPS, cooling system, power and generator backup will be established at the Earth System Science Organisation-ministry of earth sciences (ESSO-MoES) units, to enable simulations for improved weather and climate predictions.

The facility will also be set up at the Indo-Africa Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Mauritius as part of India`s commitment for running an end-to-end medium range weather forecasting system for the African Union.

It will also extend support to the neighbouring Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries.

The system will be available to the academic and research community of the country to undertake developmental work for improving the skill of forecasting.

The HPC system will be implemented in two phases during the 12th Plan.

The entire computational facility will be maintained at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (ESSO-IITM) and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ESSO-NCMRWF) with access to other ESSO units through the dedicated National Knowledge Network (NKN) linkage.