Latest news with #WeatherNext
Indian Express
6 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Microsoft's AI model Aurora can now predict air quality at high speed and precision
Microsoft's foundational AI model for weather forecasting has been upgraded and can now accurately predict air quality as well. Aurora has been developed by Microsoft Research to forecast a range of weather-related phenomena such as hurricanes, typhoons, etc, with greater precision and speed than traditional meteorological methods, the company said in a blog post earlier this week. It has also published a research paper on Aurora in science journal Nature. Microsoft further said that Aurora's source code and model weights are now publicly available. A specialised version of the model that produces hourly forecasts, including for clouds, has been integrated into the MSN Weather app. The Windows maker has claimed that Aurora is one of the top-performing AI models in the field of weather forecasting. 'What sets Aurora apart is that it is originally trained as a foundation model and can then be specialized through finetuning to go beyond what is considered traditional weather forecasting, such as air pollution prediction,' Microsoft said. 'Because the model first learns from a large and diverse set of data, it can be fine-tuned with smaller amounts of air quality data,' it added. Aurora has been trained on over a million hours of data captured by satellites, radar and weather stations as well as past weather simulations and forecasts, the company said. The AI model can be fine-tuned using additional data to provide forecasts about specific weather events. Its underlying encoder architecture helps to translate massive amounts of data drawn from multiple sources into a standard format that the AI model uses to make predictions. 'We're not putting in strict rules about how we think variables should interact with each other. We're just giving a large deep-learning model the option to learn whatever is most useful. This is the power of deep learning in these kind of simulation problems,' Megan Stanley, a senior researcher with Microsoft Research, said. Microsoft claimed that its Aurora AI model accurately predicted the landfall of Typhoon Doksuri in Philippines four days in advance and better than some expert predictions. The model also successfully predicted a sandstorm in Iraq two years ago. It beat the US National Hurricane Center by providing accurate five-day forecasts of tropical cyclone paths in 2022 and 2023, as per the company. Aurora, which draws compute power from graphics processing units (GPUs), provides weather forecasts in seconds compared to hourly predictions by traditional weather systems running on supercomputers. While the initial cost involved in training Aurora was high, Microsoft said its operational expenses are lower than traditional weather forecast systems. AI weather models like Aurora are not entirely new. Over the past few years, Google DeepMind has released several AI models designed for weather forecasting such as WeatherNext.
Express Tribune
24-05-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
Microsoft says new Aurora AI model can accurately forecast weather changes
Microsoft says new Aurora AI model can accurately forecast weather changes Microsoft says its latest AI system, Aurora, can predict typhoons, hurricanes, sandstorms, and air quality events more accurately and significantly faster than traditional forecasting methods, according to a new research paper and blog post released this week. The company published details of the Aurora model in Nature, citing major improvements in forecast accuracy and efficiency. Trained on more than a million hours of satellite, radar, and ground station data, Aurora is designed to anticipate atmospheric events across the globe and can be fine-tuned for specific weather scenarios. A new paper published in Nature explains how Microsoft's Aurora AI foundation model goes beyond weather forecasting to more accurately predict a range of environmental events, from hurricanes and typhoons to air quality and ocean waves. — Microsoft Research (@MSFTResearch) May 21, 2025 In tests, Microsoft says Aurora predicted the landfall of Typhoon Doksuri in the Philippines four days in advance — outperforming several expert forecasts. The model also outpaced the US National Hurricane Center in tracking tropical cyclones over the 2022–2023 season and correctly anticipated a major sandstorm in Iraq in 2022. While AI-based weather forecasting is not new — Google DeepMind's WeatherNext is another example — Microsoft positions Aurora as among the most advanced models publicly available. The company has also released Aurora's source code and model weights, opening it to researchers and developers. Microsoft reports that, despite its large training set and the infrastructure required to build it, Aurora runs highly efficiently. Forecasts are generated in seconds, compared to hours required by legacy supercomputer-based systems. A specialised version of the model will be integrated into Microsoft's MSN Weather app, providing hourly updates and cloud forecasts. The development is seen as a potential game-changer for meteorologists and climate scientists, offering faster and possibly more accurate tools for understanding extreme weather patterns and air quality.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Microsoft says its Aurora AI can accurately predict air quality, typhoons, and more
One of Microsoft's latest AI models can accurately predict air quality, hurricanes, typhoons, and other weather-related phenomena, the company claims. In a paper published in the journal Nature and an accompanying blog post this week, Microsoft detailed Aurora, which the tech giant says can forecast atmospheric events with greater precision and speed than traditional meteorological approaches. Aurora, which has been trained on more than a million hours of data from satellites, radar and weather stations, simulations, and forecasts, can be fine-tuned with additional data to make predictions for particular weather events. AI weather models are nothing new. Google DeepMind has released a handful over the past several years, including WeatherNext, which the lab claims beats some of the world's best forecasting systems. Microsoft is positioning Aurora as one of the field's top performers — and a potential boon for labs studying weather science. In experiments, Aurora predicted Typhoon Doksuri's landfall in the Philippines four days in advance of the actual event, beating some expert predictions, Microsoft says. The model also bested the National Hurricane Center in forecasting five-day tropical cyclone tracks for the 2022-2023 season, and successfully predicted the 2022 Iraq sandstorm. While Aurora required substantial computing infrastructure to train, Microsoft says the model is highly efficient to run. It generates forecasts in seconds compared to the hours traditional systems take using supercomputer hardware. Microsoft, which has made the source code and model weights publicly available, says that it's incorporating Aurora's AI modeling into its MSN Weather app via a specialized version of the model that produces hourly forecasts, including for clouds.
Axios
05-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: Google Cloud unveils AI-powered weather predictions
Google's Cloud division is taking a major step toward making operational recent gains in AI weather forecast models and marketing them for the energy industry, the company tells Axios exclusively. Why it matters: This is a prominent example of a tech company that invested in developing AI models to make the transition from research to applications. AI weather models are in their infancy but have demonstrated remarkable accuracy. Those advances have come as certain extreme weather events are becoming more intense and frequent due to human-caused global warming. Driving the news: Google Cloud is marketing two AI forecast models to its enterprise cloud customers. Both were developed by Google DeepMind, and used historical weather data to make predictions about future conditions out to 10 to 15 days in advance. One model, previously known as GenCast, bested some of the world's most accurate modeling systems. It generates probabilistic projections to allow companies to plan for high impact, low probability scenarios as well as the most likely forecast outcomes. The big picture: The tech industry has largely led the charge on AI modeling given its expertise working with large datasets and access to significant computer resources. Google, Microsoft and Nvidia have each pursued the development of AI weather models despite none of them being a strictly weather and climate company. However, Google is now out in front when it comes to bringing its models to market. The intrigue: Google Cloud is bringing two models, branded as "WeatherNext," to its Cloud enterprise customers to try to help them plan for extreme weather. The energy industry is a key customer given companies' needs to plan for changing weather conditions, Pete Battaglia, director of research for sustainability at Google DeepMind, told Axios in an interview. Energy companies, Google hopes, will find the new tools useful for everything from planning for supply and demand swings to anticipating the need to tap into battery storage resources. Google also hopes it can lead them to make decisions on where to build renewable energy infrastructure. Google's Cloud division also sees future demand for its new weather models coming from the logistics and retail sectors, as companies seek to optimize shipping routes and stores try to stock their shelves with weather-appropriate gear. Zoom out: Google made its announcement in the run-up to the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, which features top oil and gas CEOs and representatives of the renewables sector as well as utilities. The announcement also comes as NOAA, the nation's top weather and climate agency goes through rounds of cuts and an uncertain future. Most private sector weather providers obtain original weather data for free from NOAA and other global centers, then use it to feed into their proprietary weather models. AI weather models work differently, since they are trained on historical weather data and don't involve computationally-intensive physics equations, enabling them to be run far faster and cheaper than traditional models. NOAA's approach to AI weather modeling is still developing, and Battaglia said he is open to collaboration opportunities between the agency and GoogleDeepMind. The bottom line: AI weather models are going mainstream, tailored to specific use cases. For now, they are supplementing, rather than replacing, traditional physics-based models.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Carrier and Google Cloud Join Forces to Strengthen Grid Resilience with AI-Powered Home Energy Management Systems
Carrier's Home Energy Management System integrates with Google Cloud's AI tools, and WeatherNext AI models to create an intelligent energy ecosystem within the grid PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions, and Google Cloud are joining forces to enhance grid flexibility and support smarter energy management. Led by Carrier Energy, Carrier's new energy solutions business, this initiative will integrate Carrier's battery-enabled HVAC technology—delivered through its Home Energy Management System (HEMS) solutions—with Google Cloud's AI-powered analytics and WeatherNext AI models built by Google DeepMind and Google Research. The combined solution is expected to create intelligent, connected solutions for residential HVAC energy customers. Advancing AI-Powered Energy Management Electricity demand is rising across the U.S. as factors such as onshoring, electrification of transport and adoption of AI converge. These factors present new opportunities and challenges for both utilities and consumers. By leveraging real-time energy forecasting and intelligent grid interaction, Carrier and Google Cloud are working to ensure Carrier's HEMS technology will help balance supply and demand across the grid. For homeowners, this means they can store energy in batteries and use it during peak demand periods, when electricity costs are typically higher. Google's AI-powered WeatherNext models further optimize HVAC operation, enabling greater efficiency and potential cost savings. This will help promote greater availability, reliability and affordability for energy users. This initiative helps facilitate Google's ambition to create new carbon-free energy solutions that support reliable and resilient grid operations. It also supports Carrier's goal of helping its customers avoid more than one gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Under this partnership, Carrier and Google Cloud will collaborate on innovative solutions to help unlock capacity and grid expansion in U.S. markets. By working together, Carrier and Google Cloud aim to create scalable benefits for the local grids where Carrier customers live. "Across the country we see an opportunity to build resilience in communities and scale innovative, clean energy solutions that foster economic growth," said Caroline Golin, global head of Energy Market Development and Innovation at Google. "Through collaboration with Carrier, and across the industry, we hope to create the change that brings benefits for all." Unlocking Grid Efficiency First announced at Climate Week NYC last fall, Carrier's next-generation heat pump will feature battery storage, intelligent energy forecasting and grid-interactive capabilities to help utilities flatten demand peaks and enhance energy efficiency. By integrating Carrier's HEMS technology with Google Cloud's BigQuery, Vertex AI, generative AI solutions, and WeatherNext's forecasting models, the system will intelligently manage energy flows in real time—charging, discharging and redirecting energy based on grid conditions, energy demands and weather forecasts—contributing to a more balanced and sustainable energy grid. Homeowners using stored battery energy during peak periods can help reduce strain on the grid when electricity demand is highest and energy supplies tend to have a higher carbon footprint. The project will roll out in phases through 2027, with a focus on scaling nationwide adoption thereafter. "Our energy systems must evolve to be more intelligent, flexible and economically efficient," said Hakan Yilmaz, chief technology and sustainability officer at Carrier and head of the company's new energy business. "By integrating Carrier's HEMS technology with Google Cloud's AI and analytics, we aim to help increase the efficiency of existing energy infrastructure—reducing grid congestion, unlocking greater energy utilization and contributing to economic growth." "Carrier's innovative approach to energy grid management solutions will help create a lasting positive impact on the U.S. energy landscape. By integrating Google Cloud's AI and analytics with Carrier's intelligent HVAC systems, we are creating solutions that meaningfully contribute to a more efficient and resilient energy ecosystem," said Kyle Jessen, managing director, Energy Sector, Google Cloud. A Smarter, More Resilient Energy Future As utilities, businesses and consumers adapt to an evolving energy landscape, AI-driven energy optimization will play a critical role in ensuring grid resilience and supporting electrification. Through this collaboration, Carrier and Google Cloud are taking a bold step toward a smarter, more efficient and AI-powered energy ecosystem—one that not only benefits homeowners but also supports the next generation of technology infrastructure. About CarrierCarrier Global Corporation, global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions, is committed to creating solutions that matter for people and our planet for generations to come. From the beginning, we've led in inventing new technologies and entirely new industries. Today, we continue to lead because we have a world-class, diverse workforce that puts the customer at the center of everything we do. For more information, visit or follow Carrier on social media at @Carrier. About Google CloudGoogle Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. CARR-IR Contacts: Rob Six, Olivia CornejoGoogle Cloudpress@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Carrier Global Corporation Sign in to access your portfolio
