Microsoft is proudly unveiling its advanced AI model that can predict weather patterns with high accuracy, claiming to be a game-changer when it comes to forecasting elements such as air quality or the path of hurricanes and typhoons.

The company shared these exciting details in a recent article in the reputable journal Nature and a companion blog post. They've named their powerful AI model 'Aurora', explaining that it exceeds traditional weather prediction methods in both accuracy and speed.

Relying on over a million hours of invaluable data harvested from satellites, radars, weather stations, simulations, and forecasts, Aurora is remarkably adaptable, able to fine-tune its predictions for specific weather occurrences as more data comes in.

While digital weather prediction isn't a new concept - Google DeepMind, for instance, has launched several AI models like WeatherNext, claiming superior performance over some top-tier weather forecasting systems - Microsoft's Aurora stands out. It's not only among the best in its domain but is also a potential treasure trove for researchers in weather science.

Microsoft provides convincing real-world instances of Aurora's ability. The model accurately predicted Typhoon Doksuri making landfall in the Philippines a full four days before it actually happened. Even though a group of experts had also forecasted the event, Aurora beat them to it. According to Microsoft, the AI model scored better in a different test than the National Hurricane Center's forecasts for the 2022–2023 season's tropical cyclone trajectories. Even the Iraqi sandstorm of 2022 was correctly predicted by it!

Image Courtesy: Microsoft

Aurora undoubtedly required a robust computing foundation for its training phase. Yet, it's a fast learner and performs efficiently, whizzing out forecasts in mere seconds compared to traditional systems that need supercomputers and hours to do the same predictions.

As Microsoft goes public with Aurora's source code and model weights, it's finding practical applications for the AI model. They've crafted a bespoke version of Aurora for their MSN Weather app, which can now give you hourly weather forecasts, including cloud cover updates.