The department's Office of Science will allocate the computer time to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to explore advanced climate change models at three of the department's national laboratories. The project is part of a three-year agreement on collaborative climate research that was signed Monday by the two agencies.

NOAA will work with climate change models, as well as perform near real-time high-impact weather prediction research using computing time on two of the world's top five most powerful computers -- the Argonne National Laboratory's IBM Blue Gene and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Cray computers. NOAA will also be allocated time at the department's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"The collaboration … will enable our country to take leadership in both regional and global climate change prediction, enhancing our ability to develop national policy," said Energy Department Under Secretary for Science Raymond Orbach. "This will also improve weather prediction to help protect lives and property, as well as the nation's energy infrastructure."