convection
FuXi-Nowcast: Meet the longstanding challenge of convective initiation in nowcasting
Chen, Lei, Zhu, Zijian, Zhuang, Xiaoran, Qi, Tianyuan, Feng, Yuxuan, Zhong, Xiaohui, Li, Hao
Accurate nowcasting of convective storms remains a major challenge for operational forecasting, particularly for convective initiation and the evolution of high-impact rainfall and strong winds. Here we present FuXi-Nowcast, a deep-learning system that jointly predicts composite radar reflectivity, surface precipitation, near-surface temperature, wind speed and wind gusts at 1-km resolution over eastern China. FuXi-Nowcast integrates multi-source observations, such as radar, surface stations and the High-Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS), with three-dimensional atmospheric fields from the machine-learning weather model FuXi-2.0 within a multi-task Swin-Transformer architecture. A convective signal enhancement module and distribution-aware hybrid loss functions are designed to preserve intense convective structures and mitigate the rapid intensity decay common in deep-learning nowcasts. FuXi-Nowcast surpasses the operational CMA-MESO 3-km numerical model in Critical Success Index for reflectivity, precipitation and wind gusts across thresholds and lead times up to 12 h, with the largest gains for heavy rainfall. Case studies further show that FuXi-Nowcast more accurately captures the timing, location and structure of convective initiation and subsequent evolution of convection. These results demonstrate that coupling three-dimensional machine-learning forecasts with high-resolution observations can provide multi-hazard, long-lead nowcasts that outperforms current operational systems.
- Asia > China > Jiangsu Province > Nanjing (0.04)
- Europe > Finland (0.04)
- Europe > Austria (0.04)
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- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > United States Government (1.00)
- Energy (1.00)
Breaking the Statistical Similarity Trap in Extreme Convection Detection
Current evaluation metrics for deep learning weather models create a "Statistical Similarity Trap", rewarding blurry predictions while missing rare, high-impact events. We provide quantitative evidence of this trap, showing sophisticated baselines achieve 97.9% correlation yet 0.00 CSI for dangerous convection detection. We introduce DART (Dual Architecture for Regression Tasks), a framework addressing the challenge of transforming coarse atmospheric forecasts into high-resolution satellite brightness temperature fields optimized for extreme convection detection (below 220 K). DART employs dual-decoder architecture with explicit background/extreme decomposition, physically motivated oversampling, and task-specific loss functions. We present four key findings: (1) empirical validation of the Statistical Similarity Trap across multiple sophisticated baselines; (2) the "IVT Paradox", removing Integrated Water Vapor Transport, widely regarded as essential for atmospheric river analysis, improves extreme convection detection by 270%; (3) architectural necessity demonstrated through operational flexibility (DART achieves CSI = 0.273 with bias = 2.52 vs. 6.72 for baselines at equivalent CSI), and (4) real-world validation with the August 2023 Chittagong flooding disaster as a case study. To our knowledge, this is the first work to systematically address this hybrid conversion-segmentation-downscaling task, with no direct prior benchmarks identified in existing literature. Our validation against diverse statistical and deep learning baselines sufficiently demonstrates DART's specialized design. The framework enables precise operational calibration through beta-tuning, trains in under 10 minutes on standard hardware, and integrates seamlessly with existing meteorological workflows, demonstrating a pathway toward trustworthy AI for extreme weather preparedness.
- Indian Ocean > Bay of Bengal (0.05)
- Asia > Bangladesh > Dhaka Division > Dhaka District > Dhaka (0.04)
- North America > United States > Pennsylvania (0.04)
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- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Vision (1.00)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Representation & Reasoning (1.00)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Machine Learning > Statistical Learning (1.00)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Machine Learning > Neural Networks > Deep Learning (1.00)
- Europe > United Kingdom > England > Cambridgeshire > Cambridge (0.04)
- North America > United States > Utah (0.04)
- North America > United States > California > Alameda County > Berkeley (0.04)
Transparent Machine Learning: Training and Refining an Explainable Boosting Machine to Identify Overshooting Tops in Satellite Imagery
Mitchell, Nathan, Hoef, Lander Ver, Ebert-Uphoff, Imme, Moen, Kristina, Hilburn, Kyle, Lee, Yoonjin, King, Emily J.
An Explainable Boosting Machine (EBM) is an interpretable machine learning (ML) algorithm that has benefits in high risk applications but has not yet found much use in atmospheric science. The overall goal of this work is twofold: (1) explore the use of EBMs, in combination with feature engineering, to obtain interpretable, physics-based machine learning algorithms for meteorological applications; (2) illustrate these methods for the detection of overshooting top (OTs) in satellite imagery. Specifically, we seek to simplify the process of OT detection by first using mathematical methods to extract key features, such as cloud texture using Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrices, followed by applying an EBM. Our EBM focuses on the classification task of predicting OT regions, utilizing Channel 2 (visible imagery) and Channel 13 (infrared imagery) of the Advanced Baseline Imager sensor of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16. Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor system convection flags are used as labels to train the EBM model. Note, however, that detecting convection, while related, is different from detecting OTs. Once trained, the EBM was examined and minimally altered to more closely match strategies used by domain scientists to identify OTs. The result of our efforts is a fully interpretable ML algorithm that was developed in a human-machine collaboration. While the final model does not reach the accuracy of more complex approaches, it performs well and represents a significant step toward building fully interpretable ML algorithms for this and other meteorological applications.
- North America > United States > Colorado > Larimer County > Fort Collins (0.04)
- Asia > South Korea > Seoul > Seoul (0.04)
A Physics-Informed Convolutional Long Short Term Memory Statistical Model for Fluid Thermodynamics Simulations
Menicali, Luca, Grace, Andrew, Richter, David H., Castruccio, Stefano
Fluid thermodynamics underpins atmospheric dynamics, climate science, industrial applications, and energy systems. However, direct numerical simulations (DNS) of such systems are computationally prohibitive. To address this, we present a novel physics-informed spatio-temporal surrogate model for Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC), a canonical example of convective fluid flow. Our approach combines convolutional neural networks for spatial feature extraction with an innovative recurrent architecture inspired by large language models, comprising a context builder and a sequence generator to capture temporal dynamics. Inference is penalized with respect to the governing partial differential equations to ensure physical interpretability. Given the sensitivity of turbulent convection to initial conditions, we quantify uncertainty using a conformal prediction framework. This model replicates key features of RBC dynamics while significantly reducing computational cost, offering a scalable alternative to DNS for long-term simulations.
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