High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi) has been awarded $4 million to support NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory located on Princeton University's campus. The contract began March 3 and, after completing the contract start-up, HPTi's GFDL team will be composed of 21 computational scientists, software developers, systems support staff, and senior consultants. GFDL's mission is to expand the scientific understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes that govern the behavior of the atmosphere and oceans as complex fluid systems -- with a special focus on the development and utilization of computer simulations. GFDL conducts leading-edge research toward deeper understanding of weather and hurricane forecasts, El Nino prediction, stratospheric ozone depletion, and global climate change. Research at GFDL concerns the predictability of weather on large and small scales as well as the interaction of the atmosphere and oceans, and how the atmosphere and oceans influence and are influenced by various trace constituents. This award continues HPTi's many years of supporting the nation's science and technology community with computational science, high performance computing, and scientific software development. "This is a very significant win and we appreciate the trust that NOAA has in our ability to assist its researchers in their important mission for our nation," said HPTi President Timothy P. Kennan. HPTi's on-site staff will be helping to improve GFDL's models and products through a number of activities, including the development of the Flexible Modeling System, which is the software infrastructure for the atmosphere, ocean, and coupled climate models. The FMS code is portable across scalar and parallel HPC architectures. HPTi will also support the high performance computing system, the data portal, and data visualization. "We are excited about becoming a part of this unique and innovative team at GFDL," said HPTi Group Vice President Scott F. Miller. "Our participation will further enhance HPTi's ability to provide solutions for the nation's most important science programs."