[Reading Science] Climate Change Caused by Humans... AI Predicts and Provides Solutions

NASA and IBM Present AI Model at UN Climate Change Convention
Monitors Climate Change, Analyzes Weather, Heat Islands, and Weather Anomalies
Available as Open Source for Everyone
Operable on PCs Including GPUs

On November 20th, in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, a driver evacuated onto the roof of a vehicle as the road disappeared due to sudden heavy rain.
[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

Climate change is an unavoidable reality. After an October hotter than any other year, as soon as December arrived, a cold wind typical of early winter hit the face. The Southern Hemisphere experienced an unimaginable heatwave of 40 degrees even during spring in September. Sea surface temperatures continue to rise without stopping. Climate observation agencies around the world have declared this October the hottest October on record. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is confident that this year will be recorded as the hottest year in history. The El Ni?o phenomenon, which warms the waters of the eastern Pacific such as the Pacific coast of South America, is a sign that weather conditions in the Southern Hemisphere will worsen further. Humans are contemplating ways to overcome these climate changes and the resulting damages.

Climate phenomena vary widely, including torrential rains, droughts, extreme heat, and cold. Humans have devoted efforts to observing and predicting climate phenomena. Even in modern times, supercomputers introduced with huge investments assist humans in weather observation, but it has been common to be criticized for failing to predict climate change phenomena accurately rather than succeeding.

Humans do not stop. The new weather prediction tool humans have found is artificial intelligence (AI). At the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), which opened on the 30th of last month in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), a remarkable climate change response method appeared. The main player is an AI model developed by NASA and the giant information technology company IBM. The Mohamed bin Zayed AI University, the Kenyan government, and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre also collaborated. This AI model was built to monitor Earth's climate change from space.

This model resembles a 'Google Earth' looking down at Earth from space. While Google Maps or Google Earth can switch between satellite images and maps, this tool can apply algorithms for forests, carbon emissions, floods, wildfires, and more. It enables responses to various climate changes, including weather forecasting, heat island analysis, reforestation, and the impacts of meteorological anomalies. According to the developers, it is expected to be available for use by countries, companies, and charitable organizations starting in 2024.

Juan Bernabe Monero, director of IBM UK Research Lab, explained that through this tool, users can choose places where they should not travel or places suitable for buying a house, and its utility can greatly increase depending on how the user utilizes it. Director Bernabe Monero said that this AI model will be 'open source,' not belonging to any specific big tech company, and will be entrusted to local communities.

If responses to climate change require expensive fees, underdeveloped countries will find it difficult to use. To solve this problem, this tool does not require high-performance computers like supercomputers. It can be used on laptop PCs or desktop PCs, including those with graphics processing units (GPUs).

Alessandro Curioni, an IBM Fellow, stated that finding ways to respond to climate change is an urgent issue, and "AI-based models utilizing geospatial data can be a game changer because they allow us to better understand, prepare for, and resolve many climate-related events affecting the health of the Earth at speeds and in ways never seen before."

The adoption of AI in weather observation is spreading. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts recently began using AI emulators for accurate weather prediction.