Docker container in DWD's Seamless INtegrated FOrecastiNg sYstem (SINFONY)

At Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), the SINFONY project has been set up to develop a seamless ensemble prediction system for convective-scale forecasting with forecast ranges of up to 12 hours. It combines Nowcasting (NWC) techniques with numerical weather prediction (NWP) in a seamless way. So far NWC and NWP run on two different IT-Infrastructure levels. Due to the data transfer between both infrastructures, this separation slows down SINFONY, makes it complex and prone to disturbances. These disadvantages are solved by applying the interconnected part of the SINFONY on one single architecture using a Docker Container.

With this aim in view a Docker-Container of the respective NWC components is created and executed on the infrastructure of NWP, the high performance linux computing cluster (HPC) of DWD. In test applications we already observed a speed up of roughly 20% by using the Container on the HPC-cluster instead of using NWC-Tools on the initial NWC IT-Architecture. The Container is already implemented in DWD’s experimental tool BACY for the assimilation cycle.

A major innovation of SINFONY is the rapid update cycle (RUC), an hourly refreshing NWP procedure with a Forecast range of 8 hours, which will be extended to 12 hours soon. The container will be implemented to the RUC and used for the subsequent combination of NWP and NWC forecasts.

In the presentation I will explain what a container is and discuss opportunities and risks of this technology. I will introduce how building the Container is integrated to the CICD procedures at DWD, how and where the Container is implemented to BACY and discuss latest results for the implementation to the RUC.