Article

Can a quantum computer be applied for numerical weather prediction?

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Abstract

The paper considers fundamental limitations that impede the growth of performance of supercomputers based on silicon transistors and do not allow satisfying the needs of developing numerical weather and climate prediction models. A brief review of studies dealing with the development of quantum computing algorithms and with the creation of real quantum computers is provided. The shift from pure science to engineering solutions is observed. The leaders of the computer industry set the goal of creating a general-purpose quantum computer in the next few years. It is proved that the applicability of quantum computations and quantum computers for solving the problems of numerical weather and climate prediction should be preliminarily studied and assessed.

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... As the technology is still in its infancy, the potential of quantum information processing has not been explored/exposed completely. Even at present, in addition to the scientific interest/research, the unique technique and unprecedented computing power of QIP systems show tremendous prospects in many practical/commercial applications such as the development of new medicines and materials [16,17], machine learning & artificial intelligence [18,19], financial services, supply chain & logistics, software ver-ification & validation [17], numerical weather prediction [20], image processing [21], cybersecurity [11,22] etc. ...
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