Economic Impact of Thermal Inversions

Introduction

Can climate data reveal how weather shifts impact global economies? PhD researchers Vinh Phan and Fiorella Parra Mujica set out to measure the economic toll of “thermal inversions”: a weather phenomenon where a layer of warm air acts like a lid, trapping pollution and smog close to the ground. Because these stagnant conditions cause health hazards and disrupt daily life, they can have massive ripple effects on a country’s economy. To study this, the research team gathered five years of global geographic data from the Climate Data Store. However, they hit a wall: their computers lacked the power to handle such a massive dataset, and their initial code was running too slowly to be practical.

EDC support

EDC’s data lab re-engineered the pipeline. First, they rewrote the researchers’ initial code, from R to Python and using a “multiprocessing” approach: essentially teaching the computers to tackle multiple massive calculation tasks at the exact same time. Second, the EDC team fixed a critical data error: the original code calculated geographic distances as if the Earth were flat. The EDC replaced this with a matrix-based Haversine formula that accounts for Earth’s curvature, preventing data distortion and ensuring highly accurate results. By running these heavy computations on the EDC’s own high-performance (high-RAM), high-memory workstations, the team avoided the need for expensive external supercomputers and reduced costs.

• Optimised Python rewrite of an R-based workflow
• Multiprocessing for major runtime reductions
• Accurate geodesic distances via Haversine matrices
• Execution on EDC high-RAM machines for cost efficiency