Programming language Fortran is already widely used, especially in the field of high-performance computing. It is the current standard for large-scale computational models including climate modeling, and is popular in the scientific community due to its reliability. However, the language needs extensive reform to become more performant and user-friendly. An active community has rallied behind this effort and formulated a reform strategy in 2019. The strategy includes improving the Fortran Package Manager to make Fortran easier to use.
Why is this important?
“Climate models are data-rich simulations of a wide variety of climate-related elements, such as the atmosphere and oceans. Understanding how they are related and mapping influencing factors requires extensive and complex calculations with huge outputs. Fortran is ideal for this purpose due to its reliability and usefulness in modeling contexts. However, the language is complex to use and out-of-date. It needs modernizing, especially when it comes to usability. Climate research - and the scientific community as a whole - would greatly benefit from a simplified version of the language.
The climate crisis is acute. Open technologies can make a critical contribution by helping us understand the impact changing conditions will have on people and nature.”
What are we funding?
The Fortran Package Manager will be reworked and improved to create better usability. The Fortran compiler LFortran, which greatly simplifies developing with Fortran, will also be overhauled to translate all Fortran features from AST to ASR.