arXiv:2410.14932physics.ao-phcs.LG2024-10被引 82

AI气象模型难以预测罕见超强台风,依赖训练数据中的强风暴

Can AI weather models predict out-of-distribution gray swan tropical cyclones?

  • 用移除强台风数据训练FourCastNet,测试其对超强台风的预测能力
  • 无强台风数据训练的模型无法准确预报5级台风,说明无法外推
  • 跨洋盆预测有潜力,提示模型隐含区域信息,适合气候风险研究者

预测灰天鹅天气极端事件——虽可能发生但极罕见以致训练数据中缺失——是人工智能气象模型与长期气候模拟器的重大挑战。核心问题在于:AI模型能否从训练集中较弱的天气事件外推至未见的强烈极端事件?为此,我们在1979-2015年ERA5数据集上,独立训练FourCastNet模型,分别使用全部数据,或剔除全球、北大西洋或西太平洋盆地的3-5级热带气旋(TC)数据。随后在2018-2023年5级TC(灰天鹅)上测试。所有模型在全球天气预测上表现相似,但剔除3-5级TC的版本无法准确预测5级TC,表明模型无法从弱风暴外推至强极端。而在某一洋盆剔除强台风数据的模型,在该洋盆仍具备一定5级TC预测能力,说明FourCastNet可在热带洋盆间泛化。这一结果令人鼓舞且意外,因区域信息是隐式编码于输入中。鉴于当前最先进的AI气象与气候模型具有类似学习策略,本结论很可能适用于其他模型。其他类型极端天气亦需类似检验。研究揭示,需开发新型学习策略,以使AI模型可靠提供最罕见、最具破坏性台风的早期预警或统计估计,或适用于其他极端天气。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Predicting gray swan weather extremes, which are possible but so rare that they are absent from the training dataset, is a major concern for AI weather models and long-term climate emulators. An important open question is whether AI models can extrapolate from weaker weather events present in the training set to stronger, unseen weather extremes. To test this, we train independent versions of the AI model FourCastNet on the 1979-2015 ERA5 dataset with all data, or with Category 3-5 tropical cyclones (TCs) removed, either globally or only over the North Atlantic or Western Pacific basin. We then test these versions of FourCastNet on 2018-2023 Category 5 TCs (gray swans). All versions yield similar accuracy for global weather, but the one trained without Category 3-5 TCs cannot accurately forecast Category 5 TCs, indicating that these models cannot extrapolate from weaker storms. The versions trained without Category 3-5 TCs in one basin show some skill forecasting Category 5 TCs in that basin, suggesting that FourCastNet can generalize across tropical basins. This is encouraging and surprising because regional information is implicitly encoded in inputs. Given that current state-of-the-art AI weather and climate models have similar learning strategies, we expect our findings to apply to other models. Other types of weather extremes need to be similarly investigated. Our work demonstrates that novel learning strategies are needed for AI models to reliably provide early warning or estimated statistics for the rarest, most impactful TCs, and, possibly, other weather extremes.

AI气象极端天气外推能力热带气旋

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