Earthly Machine Learning

AI-empowered Next-Generation Multiscale Climate Modelling for Mitigation and Adaptation


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🎙️ Episode 24: AI-empowered Next-Generation Multiscale Climate Modelling for Mitigation and Adaptation
🔗 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01527-w

🌐 Abstract
Despite decades of progress, Earth system models (ESMs) still face significant gaps in accuracy and uncertainty, largely due to challenges in representing small-scale or poorly understood processes. This episode explores a transformative vision for next-generation climate modeling—one that embeds AI across multiple scales to enhance resolution, improve model fidelity, and better inform climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

📌 Bullet points summary

  • Existing ESMs struggle with inaccuracies in climate projections due to subgrid-scale and unknown process limitations.

  • A new approach is proposed that blends AI with multiscale modeling, combining fine-resolution simulations with coarser hybrid models that capture key Earth system feedbacks.

  • This strategy is built on four pillars:

    1. Higher resolution via advanced computing

    2. Physics-aware machine learning to enhance hybrid models

    3. Systematic use of Earth observations to constrain models

    4. Modernized scientific infrastructure to operationalize insights

  • Aims to deliver faster, more actionable climate data to support urgent policy needs for both mitigation and adaptation.

  • Envisions hybrid ESMs and interactive Earth digital twins, where AI helps simulate processes more realistically and supports climate decision-making at scale.

💡 The Big Idea
Integrating AI into climate models across scales is not just an upgrade—it’s a shift towards smarter, faster, and more adaptive climate science, essential for responding to the climate crisis with precision and urgency.

📖 Citation
Eyring, Veronika, et al. "AI-empowered next-generation multiscale climate modelling for mitigation and adaptation." Nature Geoscience 17.10 (2024): 963–971.


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Earthly Machine LearningBy Amirpasha