Google's new AI weather model uses live satellite data for higher-resolution forecasts

Google DeepMind has released the WeatherNext 3, an updated version of its last AI-powered weather model that it claims offers even more detailed forecasts across key variables like temperature, moisture and wind speed. DeepMind notes the new model should be particularly useful to companies working in renewable energy production, because of its ability to forecast "100-meter wind speeds (roughly at turbine-height) for precise wind-energy output, alongside high-resolution cloud cover and sun radiation levels to help solar farms." WeatherNext 3's ability to offer hourly and higher-resolution forecasts (in a 5-kilometer square grid rather than the 25-kilometer square grid of WeatherNext 2) is all due to the new data it's trained on, DeepMind says. Rather than primarily relying on data from numerical weather prediction models, which include a six-hour lag, WeatherNext 3 incorporates live satellite data, which gives the model "a rich, continuously updating view of the atmosphere." The model's ingestion of sparse weather station data means it can also offer more detailed forecasts of variables like humidity, which can usually change dramatically from one kilometer to the next.