Dr. Daskalakis’ environmental science and technology group started using Cy-Tera under preparatory access, using their allocated time for code development and scalability testing.

In the second LinkSCEEM/Cy-Tera call for proposals, Daskalakis’ group applied and was successfully granted resources allocation under production access.
The project in question investigated the direct role that pollutants have on atmospheric precipitation processes.

More specifically, the project aimed to provide quantitative and qualitative information for processes involving the microphysics of pollutant enriched aerosols in the clouds, as well as their interactions with biological membranes for human and plant protection purposes.

Using Molecular Dynamics simulations to act as a simulation “microscope” the results of the project emphasize the need for the effects of certain environmental pollutants in terms of their relative concentration to be incorporated into existing weather prediction models as lack of such knowledge prevents one from evaluating and predicting a correct dynamical behaviour of clouds – something important to know given the rising levels of pollution in the atmosphere.