To efficiently share network resources, 100-BaseT fast ethernet switches interconnect the computers within each office. Additionally, the Arvada based computers have both the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) software package for computation on multiple nodes on the network and Open MP capabilities for shared memory multiprocessing within each computer. For the majority of model simulations, using a job level parallelization, where individual periods of a simulation are put onto each computational node, maximizes network throughput. However, the computational network also has the ability to share the multi-Gbyte memory and 20 processors on a single MM5 model simulation.

A key feature of the AG computer network is the ability for AG to add computational resources quickly and cost effectively. Alpine scientists have been using Linux and Unix for meteorological and air quality modeling for over 16 years. This knowledge base, along with existing relationships with hardware vendors, software vendors, and system specialists, enable AG to meet the computational requirements of the VISTAS modeling study.

Alpine Geophysics maintains a WWW site at www.alpinegeophysics.com to facilitate information transfer between the company's four 4 regional offices and with our clients. The web page provides an overview of the firm, a description of our services in the atmospheric sciences, qualifications of our senior staff, and includes password-protected areas for specific projects. Data base transfer to and from clients is possible via our ftp server (ftp.alpinegeophysics.com). Additional project level websites can also be set up.