GenCast Model:
According to a research paper published in the journal Nature by Google DeepMind researchers, a new machine-learning weather prediction model called GenCast can outperform the best traditional forecasting systems in at least some situations.
- GenCast Model is a new machine-learning weather prediction model.
- It uses a diffusion model approach similar to Artificial Intelligence (AI) image generators.
- The system generates multiple forecasts to capture the complex behaviour of the atmosphere.
- It does so with a fraction of the time and computing resources required for traditional approaches.
- It is a part of Google’s growing suite of next-generation AI-based weather models.
- It can predict the weather for 15 days in just 8 minutes. The traditional way of predicting weather usually takes hours.
- The AI-powered program was trained on four decades of historical data through 2018, taken from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ (ECMWF) historical archives.
- The GenCast model makes predictions of several variables such as temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed at the surface and at 13 different heights, on a grid that divides the world up into 0.25-degree regions of latitude and longitude.
