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Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Giuseppe S. Vaiana
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Computational fluid dynamics
(For more information follow this link).
For several years the OAPa has been committed to High Performance
Computing (HPC) programs aimed to develop plasma models in astrophysical
environments. Throughout the years, the OAPa researchers have gained a
sound experience and the skills necessary to optimize magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) and hydrodynamic codes for efficient execution on high performance
parallel computing systems, and to develop and apply numerical models
to the study of astrophysical plasma, such as that present in the
solar and stellar coronae, young stellar objects, novae, and supernova
remnants. They have taken part in the development and optimization
of multi-dimensional MHD and hydrodynamic numerical codes, which
include several important physical effects in astrophysics, such as
thermal conduction, gravity, viscosity, radiative losses from optically
thin plasma, non-equilibrium of ionization. The OAPa group has also a
long-term experience in analyzing and interpreting the model results
in terms of observable quantities and it has an excellent experience on
multi-wavelength data analysis and interpretation. The OAPa cooperates
with the Flash Centre of the University of Chicago, USA, with the purpose
of updating, enlarging and extensively applying the FLASH code, a complex
MHD numerical code for astrophysical plasmas. Some important
numerical modules now integrated in the FLASH code have been developed
in Palermo. The OAPa group also extensively applies PLUTO, a modular
Godunov-type MHD code for astrophysical plasmas.
Main Research Lines
Dynamics of magnetic structures in the solar corona;
Physics of accretion phenomena in young stellar objects;
Evolution of protostellar jets and origin of their X-ray emission;
Evolution of nova outbursts;
Interaction of supernova remnants with the surrounding environment;
Effects of cosmic ray particle acceleration on the evolution of supernova remnants.
The SCAN facility
As the
demand for calculation resources increased in 2000, the OAPa
reasearchers launched the SCAN service (Sistema di Calcolo per
l'Astrofisica Numerica; Computing System for Numerical Astrophysics).
At the present day it consists of a cluster Linux based on six nodes
each with 8-cores and two nodes each with 12 cores, for a total of 72
CPUs and 144 GByte of memory RAM, hosted in four Twin Servers. The 64
bit nodes are based on processors Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron. The
nodes are equipped with Infiniband (Host Channel Adapter - HCA) and
are interconnected through the highly efficient switch InfiniBand.
For numerical simulations requiring more computational resources, the
researchers of the OAPa regularly use HPC computers from CINECA
supercomputing centre, in Bologna (Italy), by previous submission of
scientific programs which are selected on merit.
COMETA and the PI2S2 project
In
2005, INAF through its institutes based in Sicily (OAPa, Osservatorio
Astrofisico di Catania, and Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica
Cosmica di Palermo) promoted the foundation of the COMETA Consortium
and outlined the PI2S2 Project, as part of the key national project
'Research, High Training and Technologic Development' funded by the
Italian Ministry of Research and University. Other partners, besides
INAF, are: INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics); INGV
(National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology); the Universities
of Palermo, Messina and Catania, and the SCIRE Consortium. The PI2S2
Project allowed the creation of an e-infrastructure in Sicily based
on the GRID paradigm which can be used by researchers from OAPa. In
particular, research and development centres have been built in order
to carry out very important activities in the field of major research
and technological applications. The centres are equipped with HPC
processors, new managing and processing systems for large databases,
new distributed computing technologies and new systems oriented to
multimedia simulations.
Involved people: (Follow this link)
Barbera Enrico - ebarbera at astropa.inaf.it
Bocchino Fabrizio - bocchino at astropa.inaf.it
Bonito Rosaria- sbonito at astropa.unipa.it
Miceli Marco- miceli at astropa.unipa.it
Orlando Salvatore- orlando at astropa.inaf.it
Peres Giovanni- peres at astropa.unipa.it
Petralia Antonino- apetralia at astropa.unipa.it
Pumo Maria Letizia- mlpumo at astropa.unipa.it
Reale Fabio- reale at astropa.unipa.it
Relevant references (Follow this link)