China’s EarthLab—Forefront of Earth System Simulation Research

This article introduces “EarthLab”, a major new Earth system numerical simulation facility developed in China. EarthLab is a numerical simulation system for a physical climate system, an environmental system, an ecological system, a solid earth system, and a space weather system as a whole with a high-performance scientific computing platform. EarthLab consists of five key elements—namely: a global earth numerical simulation system, a regional high-precision simulation system, a supercomputing support and management system, a database, data assimilation and visualization system, and a high-performance computing system for earth sciences. EarthLab helps to study the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, as well as their interactions, to improve the accuracy of predictions by integrating simulations and observations, and to provide a scientific foundation for major issues such as national disaster prevention and mitigation. The construction and operation of EarthLab will involve close cooperation with joint contributions and shared benefits.