IN a coastal laboratory in eastern China, scientists are putting the final touches on an advanced artificial intelligence system designed to predict the ocean’s most unpredictable behavior. The upgraded LangYa 2.0 model, set for official launch in June, will soon be able to forecast not just ocean temperature and salinity, but also typhoons, rainfall, storm surges, and sea ice.

Server hums echo across the research base of the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), where whiteboards are covered with algorithmic flowcharts and a red marker circles the number “2.0.” The name “LangYa” refers to an ancient terrace located just 20 kilometers away, where Chinese astronomers centuries ago observed the sky to determine the changing seasons.

The research and development of the LangYa series has been a journey of overcoming challenges. The hardest part was making it both fast and accurate, according to the IOCAS research team on AI in oceanography. This new generation of AI large model, developed specifically for marine environmental forecasting, marks a landmark achievement in the integration of AI and ocean science.

When the team unveiled version 1.0 in late 2024, the model could predict variables of global ocean conditions, such as temperature, salinity, and currents, for the next one to seven days in a single run. According to IOCAS, the model boosts forecasting efficiency by 10,000 times compared to conventional methods. Version 1.0 is now deployed and operational at the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center in Beijing, a facility under the Ministry of Natural Resources that issues China’s marine weather forecasts and disaster early warnings.

But temperature and salinity alone were not enough. The AI would need to understand complex ocean phenomena that cause typhoons, floods, and storm surges. “With the same batch of data, version 1.0 tells you what the sea temperature is. Version 2.0 tells you where a vortex might form and when a storm surge will arrive,” said the team leader. “Version 1.0 helps a doctor read a scan, but the doctor still makes the diagnosis. Version 2.0 is the AI that reads the scan and gives you the diagnosis directly.”(SD-Agencies)