ETH Zurich centralises climate and Earth observation data for the research of tomorrow
AI models are playing an increasingly important role in weather forecasting and the early detection of natural hazards. Training these models requires vast amounts of climate and Earth observation data. Over the past few months, ETH Zurich has therefore copied openly available datasets from NASA to the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano.
From agriculture and hydropower to protecting people from natural hazards such as floods, storms and landslides, accurate weather forecasts are essential to today's economy and society. These forecasts are typically generated using high-resolution weather and climate models, which use mathematical equations to simulate the complex processes taking place in the oceans and atmosphere. However, traditional models such as these require enormous computing power, making them both energy-intensive and time-consuming. Switzerland is no exception: MeteoSwiss uses the Alps supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano to generate its weather forecasts.
In recent years, the data prepared for these traditional weather and climate models has also been used to develop AI models capable of forecasting the weather quickly and reliably, while requiring far less computing power and energy. “The use of AI-based methods in weather forecasting will continue to grow. In the future, these AI models could complement traditional models and enable reliable weather forecasting in regions where supercomputers are not available,” says Reto Knutti, Professor of Climate Physics and Director of the Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM) at ETH Zurich.
