It has appeared that one of the world's strongest supercomputers is being bought by the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (Niwa), for the purpose of environmental forecasting.

The latest IBM Power 575 supercomputer, which had been created to deal with some of the most difficult problems in energy, aerospace, weather and climate modeling fields, carries a price tag of $12.7 million, informed Niwa chief executive John Morgan.

The new supercomputer will have one hundred times the computational power of Niwa's current supercomputer, and five hundred times the storage, along with having the capability of performing 34 trillion calculations per second.

The computational speed of the system will nearly increase by two times in 2011, when it will be upgraded.

Mr. Morgan said: "It would be the most powerful climate research supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere and was one of the most significant single investments in science in New Zealand."

The ability of Niwa, to make more specific and exact forecasts, will provide benefit to climate-sensitive industries such as the energy sector, farming, horticulture and tourism.

Furthermore, via the help of this new computer, Niwa will also be able to improve early warnings of the effects of catastrophic events, such as flooding and storm surge.

The supercomputer will weigh 18.8 tonnes, including cooling water. The system, which will save an equivalent of 50 households of electricity, will get its cooling from Evans Bay in Wellington.