They are used to do large-scale high-resolution analysis or simulation of complex systems in the physical world. The codes typically run on the bare metal with careful control of resource affinity, often C++ these days.
They aren't just used for global-scale geophysical processes like weather and climate or complex physics simulations. For example, oil companies rent time to analytically reconstruct the 3-dimensional structure of what's underneath the surface of the Earth from seismic recordings.
They aren't just used for global-scale geophysical processes like weather and climate or complex physics simulations. For example, oil companies rent time to analytically reconstruct the 3-dimensional structure of what's underneath the surface of the Earth from seismic recordings.