Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

THE Shenzhen Meteorological Bureau, in partnership with Huawei Cloud, inaugurated the use of its AI model in regional weather forecasting Saturday, World Meteorological Day.

The AI model, titled Zhiji in Chinese, enables the rapid generation of five-day forecasts for a precise 3-km range. It is based on Huawei Cloud’s Pangu-Weather Model and pre-trained, high-quality regional datasets. It can generate 5-day forecasts with a spatial resolution of 3 km for Shenzhen as well as its neighboring regions. The 3-kilometer range is much narrower than typical global models that work with a spatial resolution of 25 kilometers. The forecasts cover a wide range of meteorological elements including temperature, precipitation, and wind speed.

Compared with typical global weather models, the Zhiji model’s capacity to capture smaller-scale meteorological details is much improved. The regional model demonstrated high accuracy in predicting multiple cold-temperature periods in Shenzhen during its trial run starting in February, offering an innovative source for cold weather warnings. Going forward, the team plans to further enhance the model and refine its ability to provide accurate precipitation forecasts.

“Weather forecasting is crucial to disaster prevention and mitigation,” said Lan Hongping, deputy director of the bureau. “Through our joint innovation with Huawei Cloud, the bureau expects to further improve services for residents and the city,” Lan said.

William Dong, president of the Huawei Cloud Marketing Department, said the launch of the regional AI weather model for Shenzhen means that AI can provide new ways to enable accurate, smaller-scale weather forecasts. It also marks an important scientific development, following the publishing of a paper about the Pangu-Weather Model in the renowned scientific journal Nature last July, which demonstrates how scientific discoveries can be applied beyond the laboratory in order to provide tangible benefits.

Dong added, “Huawei Cloud will continue to be innovative in AI weather forecasting methods and extend them to benefit more sectors, provide more refined weather services, and enhance disaster preparedness.”

The announcement of a regional model represents another significant development for Pangu-Weather, which was named a top 10 scientific achievement in China in 2023.