Danish Meteorological Institute Selects Cray Supercomputer to Power Its Weather Forecasts

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Aug 18, 2015) - Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (NASDAQ: CRAY) today announced the Company has been awarded a $6 million contract to provide the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) with a Cray® XC™ supercomputer and a Cray® Sonexion® 2000 storage system. DMI and a growing list of the world's leading meteorological centers continue to run their complex, data-intensive climate and weather models on Cray supercomputers.

Through an arrangement with the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), DMI has chosen to install the new Cray supercomputer and Sonexion storage system at the IMO datacenter in Reykjavik, Iceland for year-round power and cooling efficiency. This marks the first-ever Cray system in Iceland, and the first remote installation of a production weather system through a joint venture between two national meteorological centers.

Established in 1872 and located in Copenhagen, DMI is a world-class meteorological institute focused on helping citizens, public authorities, and private companies transform knowledge about weather, climates, and seas into safety and growth. DMI provides meteorological services in the Commonwealth of the Realm of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and the surrounding waters and airspace. The Institute's services include forecasting, warnings, and monitoring of weather, climate, and related environmental conditions in the atmosphere, on land, and at sea, with the purpose of safeguarding human life and activity.

"It was paramount to us to find a business partner with the organization and skills to install a supercomputing solution in Iceland that could operate remotely 1,300 miles away from Denmark, and Cray filled all the criteria," said Mrs. Marianne Thyrring, Director General of the Danish Meteorological Institute. "This is a first-time-ever in the world attempt for two meteorological services to run an operational and meteorological environment from that distance. International partnerships between meteorological services on HPC and weather modelling like the one between DMI and IMO is still in its infancy, but shows great promise. I am sure it is the future. And since we are part of the Danish Ministry of Climate and do climate modelling, we feel obligated to use 100 % green energy supply and cooling. Iceland supplies this through geothermal and hydro-power."