Fujitsu and Yokohama National University achieve world's first real-time prediction of tornadoes associated with typhoons using supercomputer Fugaku

KAWASAKI, Japan, Feb. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fujitsu Limited and Yokohama National University today announced the achievement of the world's first real-time prediction of multiple typhoon-associated tornadoes using advanced supercomputing technology, significantly improving disaster preparedness.

The new technology utilizes optimized large-scale parallel processing coupled with the enhanced Cloud Resolving Storm Simulator (CReSS), a weather simulator developed by Professor Kazuhisa Tsuboki on Fujitsu's Fugaku supercomputer. This allows for a single, high-resolution simulations encompassing both large-scale typhoons and smaller-scale tornadoes, resulting in accurate, real-time predictions.

Previously, during simulations of Typhoon No. 10's tornadoes, which hit Japan's Kyushu area in August 2024, it took more than 11 hours to predict whether or not tornadoes would occur, making the predictions not practicably applicable. This technology was able to drastically reduce prediction time to 80 minutes, allowing the two partners to predict the occurrence of a tornado four hours in advance. This prediction calculation used only 5% of Fugaku's computational resources, indicating the potential for even larger-scale and faster predictions in the future.

The two partners will release the enhanced CReSS to the research community within fiscal year 2024, significantly improving the prediction of severe weather events and enhancing disaster mitigation efforts.

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Background

Approximately 20% of tornadoes in Japan occur alongside typhoons. In response to increasing tornado damage, Japan began issuing tornado warnings in 2008. However, compared to weather phenomena like precipitation, which can be predicted with high accuracy, tornadoes are difficult to predict due to their small scale and short duration. Tornado warnings currently have a validity period of about one hour, and there is a demand for longer warning periods.

Fujitsu and Yokohama National University initiated a joint research project in November 2022, aiming to address societal challenges related to increasingly severe typhoons exacerbated by global warming. This collaboration, conducted under the Fujitsu Small Research Lab's "Fujitsu - Yokohama National University Typhoon Science and Technology Research Center Collaborative Research Laboratory," focuses on understanding typhoon formation mechanisms and accelerating and improving the accuracy of typhoon prediction simulations.