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1. High-Rate Machine Learning for Forecasting Time-Series Signals

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FCCM53951.2022.9786127  

   Panahi, Atiyehsadat; Kabir, Ehsan; Downey, Austin; Andrews, David; Huang, Miaoqing; Bakos, Jason D. (May 2022, 2022 IEEE 30th Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM))

   “Active structures” are physical structures that incorporate real-time monitoring and control. Examples include active vibration damping or blast mitigation systems. Evaluating physics-based models in real-time is generally not feasible for such systems having high-rate dynamics which require microsecond response times, but data-driven machine-learning-based models can potentially offer a solution. This paper compares the cost and performance of two FPGA-based implementations of real-time, continuously-trained models for forecasting timeseries signals with non-stationarities, with one using HighLevel Synthesis (HLS) and the other a programmable overlay architecture. The proposed model accepts a uni-variate vibration signal and seeks to forecast future samples to inform highrate controllers. The proposed forecasting method performs two concurrent neural inference operations. One inference forecasts the state of the signal f samples into the future as a function of the most recent h samples, while the other forecasts the current sample given h samples starting from h + f − 1 samples into the past. The first forecast produces the forecast while the second forecast allows the system to calculate the model’s loss and perform an immediate model update before the next sample period. 

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2. What can we learn from 100,000 freshwater forecasts? A synthesis from the NEON Ecological Forecasting Challenge

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70004  

   Olsson, Freya; Carey, Cayelan_C; Boettiger, Carl; Harrison, Gregory; Ladwig, Robert; Lapeyrolerie, Marcus_F; Lewis, Abigail_S_L; Lofton, Mary_E; Montealegre‐Mora, Felipe; Rabaey, Joseph_S; et al (February 2025, Ecological Applications)

   Abstract Near‐term, iterative ecological forecasts can be used to help understand and proactively manage ecosystems. To date, more forecasts have been developed for aquatic ecosystems than other ecosystems worldwide, likely motivated by the pressing need to conserve these essential and threatened ecosystems and increasing the availability of high‐frequency data. Forecasters have implemented many different modeling approaches to forecast freshwater variables, which have demonstrated promise at individual sites. However, a comprehensive analysis of the performance of varying forecast models across multiple sites is needed to understand broader controls on forecast performance. Forecasting challenges (i.e., community‐scale efforts to generate forecasts while also developing shared software, training materials, and best practices) present a useful platform for bridging this gap to evaluate how a range of modeling methods perform across axes of space, time, and ecological systems. Here, we analyzed forecasts from the aquatics theme of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Forecasting Challenge hosted by the Ecological Forecasting Initiative. Over 100,000 probabilistic forecasts of water temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration for 1–30 days ahead across seven NEON‐monitored lakes were submitted in 2023. We assessed how forecast performance varied among models with different structures, covariates, and sources of uncertainty relative to baseline null models. A similar proportion of forecast models were skillful across both variables (34%–40%), although more individual models outperformed the baseline models in forecasting water temperature (10 models out of 29) than dissolved oxygen (6 models out of 15). These top performing models came from a range of classes and structures. For water temperature, we found that forecast skill degraded with increases in forecast horizons, process‐based models, and models that included air temperature as a covariate generally exhibited the highest forecast performance, and that the most skillful forecasts often accounted for more sources of uncertainty than the lower performing models. The most skillful forecasts were for sites where observations were most divergent from historical conditions (resulting in poor baseline model performance). Overall, the NEON Forecasting Challenge provides an exciting opportunity for a model intercomparison to learn about the relative strengths of a diverse suite of models and advance our understanding of freshwater ecosystem predictability. 

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3. Challenges of COVID-19 Case Forecasting in the US, 2020–2021

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011200  

   Lopez, Velma K; Cramer, Estee Y; Pagano, Robert; Drake, John M; O’Dea, Eamon B; Adee, Madeline; Ayer, Turgay; Chhatwal, Jagpreet; Dalgic, Ozden O; Ladd, Mary A; et al (May 2024, PLOS Computational Biology)

   Larremore, Daniel B (Ed.)

   During the COVID-19 pandemic, forecasting COVID-19 trends to support planning and response was a priority for scientists and decision makers alike. In the United States, COVID-19 forecasting was coordinated by a large group of universities, companies, and government entities led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub (https://covid19forecasthub.org). We evaluated approximately 9.7 million forecasts of weekly state-level COVID-19 cases for predictions 1–4 weeks into the future submitted by 24 teams from August 2020 to December 2021. We assessed coverage of central prediction intervals and weighted interval scores (WIS), adjusting for missing forecasts relative to a baseline forecast, and used a Gaussian generalized estimating equation (GEE) model to evaluate differences in skill across epidemic phases that were defined by the effective reproduction number. Overall, we found high variation in skill across individual models, with ensemble-based forecasts outperforming other approaches. Forecast skill relative to the baseline was generally higher for larger jurisdictions (e.g., states compared to counties). Over time, forecasts generally performed worst in periods of rapid changes in reported cases (either in increasing or decreasing epidemic phases) with 95% prediction interval coverage dropping below 50% during the growth phases of the winter 2020, Delta, and Omicron waves. Ideally, case forecasts could serve as a leading indicator of changes in transmission dynamics. However, while most COVID-19 case forecasts outperformed a naïve baseline model, even the most accurate case forecasts were unreliable in key phases. Further research could improve forecasts of leading indicators, like COVID-19 cases, by leveraging additional real-time data, addressing performance across phases, improving the characterization of forecast confidence, and ensuring that forecasts were coherent across spatial scales. In the meantime, it is critical for forecast users to appreciate current limitations and use a broad set of indicators to inform pandemic-related decision making. 

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4. Improving Short-Term QPF Using Geostationary Satellite All-Sky Infrared Radiances: Real-Time Ensemble Data Assimilation and Forecast during the PRECIP 2020 and 2021 Experiments

   https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-22-0156.1  

   Zhang, Yunji; Chen, Xingchao; Bell, Michael M. (April 2023, Weather and Forecasting)

   Abstract The Prediction of Rainfall Extremes Campaign In the Pacific (PRECIP) aims to improve our understanding of extreme rainfall processes in the East Asian summer monsoon. A convection-permitting ensemble-based data assimilation and forecast system (the PSU WRF-EnKF system) was run in real time in the summers of 2020–21 in advance of the 2022 field campaign, assimilating all-sky infrared (IR) radiances from the geostationary Himawari-8 and GOES-16 satellites, and providing 48-h ensemble forecasts every day for weather briefings and discussions. This is the first time that all-sky IR data assimilation has been performed in a real-time forecast system at a convection-permitting resolution for several seasons. Compared with retrospective forecasts that exclude all-sky IR radiances, rainfall predictions are statistically significantly improved out to at least 4–6 h for the real-time forecasts, which is comparable to the time scale of improvements gained from assimilating observations from the dense ground-based Doppler weather radars. The assimilation of all-sky IR radiances also reduced the forecast errors of large-scale environments and helped to maintain a more reasonable ensemble spread compared with the counterpart experiments that did not assimilate all-sky IR radiances. The results indicate strong potential for improving routine short-term quantitative precipitation forecasts using these high-spatiotemporal-resolution satellite observations in the future. Significance Statement During the summers of 2020/21, the PSU WRF-EnKF data assimilation and forecast system was run in real time in advance of the 2022 Prediction of Rainfall Extremes Campaign In the Pacific (PRECIP), assimilating all-sky (clear-sky and cloudy) infrared radiances from geostationary satellites into a numerical weather prediction model and providing ensemble forecasts. This study presents the first-of-its-kind systematic evaluation of the impacts of assimilating all-sky infrared radiances on short-term qualitative precipitation forecasts using multiyear, multiregion, real-time ensemble forecasts. Results suggest that rainfall forecasts are improved out to at least 4–6 h with the assimilation of all-sky infrared radiances, comparable to the influence of assimilating radar observations, with benefits in forecasting large-scale environments and representing atmospheric uncertainties as well. 

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5. Iterative Forecasting Improves Near-Term Predictions of Methane Ebullition Rates

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.756603  

   McClure, Ryan P.; Thomas, R. Quinn; Lofton, Mary E.; Woelmer, Whitney M.; Carey, Cayelan C. (December 2021, Frontiers in Environmental Science)

   Near-term, ecological forecasting with iterative model refitting and uncertainty partitioning has great promise for improving our understanding of ecological processes and the predictive skill of ecological models, but to date has been infrequently applied to predict biogeochemical fluxes. Bubble fluxes of methane (CH 4 ) from aquatic sediments to the atmosphere (ebullition) dominate freshwater greenhouse gas emissions, but it remains unknown how best to make robust near-term CH 4 ebullition predictions using models. Near-term forecasting workflows have the potential to address several current challenges in predicting CH 4 ebullition rates, including: development of models that can be applied across time horizons and ecosystems, identification of the timescales for which predictions can provide useful information, and quantification of uncertainty in predictions. To assess the capacity of near-term, iterative forecasting workflows to improve ebullition rate predictions, we developed and tested a near-term, iterative forecasting workflow of CH 4 ebullition rates in a small eutrophic reservoir throughout one open-water period. The workflow included the repeated updating of a CH 4 ebullition forecast model over time with newly-collected data via iterative model refitting. We compared the CH 4 forecasts from our workflow to both alternative forecasts generated without iterative model refitting and a persistence null model. Our forecasts with iterative model refitting estimated CH 4 ebullition rates up to 2 weeks into the future [RMSE at 1-week ahead = 0.53 and 0.48 log e (mg CH 4 m −2 d −1 ) at 2-week ahead horizons]. Forecasts with iterative model refitting outperformed forecasts without refitting and the persistence null model at both 1- and 2-week forecast horizons. Driver uncertainty and model process uncertainty contributed the most to total forecast uncertainty, suggesting that future workflow improvements should focus on improved mechanistic understanding of CH 4 models and drivers. Altogether, our study suggests that iterative forecasting improves week-to-week CH 4 ebullition predictions, provides insight into predictability of ebullition rates into the future, and identifies which sources of uncertainty are the most important contributors to the total uncertainty in CH 4 ebullition predictions. 

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