dr. spinrad has also talked about their success running a model on ranger. we were running the hydrodynamic storm forecast and we were sharpg the computing -- sharing the computing resources. there are 60,000 processors to share. "new york times" had a nice graphic that showed ranger in relationship to all the other super computers a couple of months ago, and it was the sixth largest and all of the other super computers shown in the graphic were at national laboratories or seminar federal large facilities. this is a university resource that is shareable through the n.s.f. with many other investigators researching a very wide variety of problems. it is a highly adaptive computing resource that we can use for our hydraulic and hydrodynamic models as well as the hurricane forecast groups. >> i know you were sharing with noaa. is there anything more that would be able to, between noaa and the technology that you h e have, that would get any better or more helpful information to the people on the grounds who are trying to prepare? >> exactly. i was about to say p

dr. richard spinrad leaves the office at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration and dr. richard spinrad will discuss the efforts to improve research were predicting and forecasting hurricanes and the agency's work with coastal states to assess vulnerability to hurricanes and to try to create something that we all desire which is a disaster resistant community. and dr. kelvin droegemeier the associate vice president for research and reset -- regents professor for meteorology at the university of oklahoma. dr. kelvin droegemeier is testifying today on behalf of the international science board task force on hurricane the science and engineering and he will discuss the task force findings in their report from a hurricane warning that critical need for a national hurricane research initiative and dr. gordon wells a research associate in the center for space research at the university of texas at austin. he has welt -- worked on synthesizing energy and a gps signals and the best hurricane and distort -- storm's surge models with evacuation and he will address the current status

dr. spinrad. >> thank you, mr. chairman. actually i would like to follow-up on a particular aspect of what dr. droegemeier alluded to, in that the hurricane forecast and prediction capability is a comprehensive set of solutions. within noaa which of course includes our national weather service, we have responsibility for developing improved capability on the front end, especially on the prediction and forecast in providing warnings and information that emergency managers, local managers can use. now, we do that through a rather extraordinary combination of capabilities. and i found it fascinating, the image that you should, sir, of hurricane charley represents the culmination of capabilities in terms of satellite support, in terms of enhanced models and observations, in terms of our ability to work with coastal managers through the national ocean service. and of course on the very front end, the research that goes into that capability to provide and improve forecast. we have made dramatic improvements over the last several de

dr. spinrad?>> i would like to follow up on a particular aspect that was alluded to in that the hurricane forecast and prediction capability is a comprehensive set of solutions within noaa which includes our national weather service. we have a responsibility for developing improved capability on the front end, especially on the prediction and forecast and providing warnings and information that emergency managers, local managers, can use. i found it fascinating that the image you showed of hurricane charlie represents the culmination of capabilities in terms of satellite support, in terms of of enhanced models and observations, in terms of our ability to work with coastal managers through the national ocean service and on the front end the research that goes into that capability to provide and improve forecasts. we have made dramatic improvements the last several decades in the track forecast. where will that hurricane make landfall? not as dramatic in the intensity foreca forecast. the consequenc