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Holographic cloud probes provide unprecedented information on cloud particle density, size and position. Each laser shot captures particles within a large volume, where images can be computationally refocused to determine particle size and location. However, processing these holograms with standard methods or machine learning (ML) models requires considerable computational resources, time and occasional human intervention. ML models are trained on simulated holograms obtained from the physical model of the probe since real holograms have no absolute truth labels. Using another processing method to produce labels would be subject to errors that the ML model would subsequently inherit. Models perform well on real holograms only when image corruption is performed on the simulated images during training, thereby mimicking non-ideal conditions in the actual probe. Optimizing image corruption requires a cumbersome manual labeling effort. Here we demonstrate the application of the neural style translation approach to the simulated holograms. With a pre-trained convolutional neural network, the simulated holograms are “stylized” to resemble the real ones obtained from the probe, while at the same time preserving the simulated image “content” (e.g. the particle locations and sizes). With an ML model trained to predict particle locations and shapes on the stylized data sets, we observed comparable performance on both simulated and real holograms, obviating the need to perform manual labeling. The described approach is not specific to holograms and could be applied in other domains for capturing noise and imperfections in observational instruments to make simulated data more like real world observations.

 

Abstract While convective storm mode is explicitly depicted in convection-allowing model (CAM) output, subjectively diagnosing mode in large volumes of CAM forecasts can be burdensome. In this work, four machine learning (ML) models were trained to probabilistically classify CAM storms into one of three modes: supercells, quasi-linear convective systems, and disorganized convection. The four ML models included a dense neural network (DNN), logistic regression (LR), a convolutional neural network (CNN) and semi-supervised CNN-Gaussian mixture model (GMM). The DNN, CNN, and LR were trained with a set of hand-labeled CAM storms, while the semi-supervised GMM used updraft helicity and storm size to generate clusters which were then hand labeled. When evaluated using storms withheld from training, the four classifiers had similar ability to discriminate between modes, but the GMM had worse calibration. The DNN and LR had similar objective performance to the CNN, suggesting that CNN-based methods may not be needed for mode classification tasks. The mode classifications from all four classifiers successfully approximated the known climatology of modes in the U.S., including a maximum in supercell occurrence in the U.S. Central Plains. Further, the modes also occurred in environments recognized to support the three different storm morphologies. Finally, storm mode provided useful information about hazard type, e.g., storm reports were most likely with supercells, further supporting the efficacy of the classifiers. Future applications, including the use of objective CAM mode classifications as a novel predictor in ML systems, could potentially lead to improved forecasts of convective hazards. 

Abstract Many of our generation’s most pressing environmental science problems are wicked problems, which means they cannot be cleanly isolated and solved with a single ‘correct’ answer (e.g., Rittel 1973; Wirz 2021). The NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography (AI2ES) seeks to address such problems by developing synergistic approaches with a team of scientists from three disciplines: environmental science (including atmospheric, ocean, and other physical sciences), AI, and social science including risk communication. As part of our work, we developed a novel approach to summer school, held from June 27-30, 2022. The goal of this summer school was to teach a new generation of environmental scientists how to cross disciplines and develop approaches that integrate all three disciplinary perspectives and approaches in order to solve environmental science problems. In addition to a lecture series that focused on the synthesis of AI, environmental science, and risk communication, this year’s summer school included a unique Trust-a-thon component where participants gained hands-on experience applying both risk communication and explainable AI techniques to pre-trained ML models. We had 677 participants from 63 countries register and attend online. Lecture topics included trust and trustworthiness (Day 1), explainability and interpretability (Day 2), data and workflows (Day 3), and uncertainty quantification (Day 4). For the Trust-a-thon we developed challenge problems for three different application domains: (1) severe storms, (2) tropical cyclones, and (3) space weather. Each domain had associated user persona to guide user-centered development. 

Flows in the atmospheric boundary layer are turbulent, characterized by a large Reynolds number, the existence of a roughness sublayer and the absence of a well-defined viscous layer. Exchanges with the surface are therefore dominated by turbulent fluxes. In numerical models for atmospheric flows, turbulent fluxes must be specified at the surface; however, surface fluxes are not known a priori and therefore must be parametrized. Atmospheric flow models, including global circulation, limited area models, and large-eddy simulation, employ Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST) to parametrize surface fluxes. The MOST approach is a semi-empirical formulation that accounts for atmospheric stability effects through universal stability functions. The stability functions are determined based on limited observations using simple regression as a function of the non-dimensional stability parameter representing a ratio of distance from the surface and the Obukhov length scale (Obukhov in Trudy Inst Theor Geofiz AN SSSR 1:95–115, 1946),$$z/L$$$z/L$. However, simple regression cannot capture the relationship between governing parameters and surface-layer structure under the wide range of conditions to which MOST is commonly applied. We therefore develop, train, and test two machine-learning models, an artificial neural network (ANN) and random forest (RF), to estimate surface fluxes of momentum, sensible heat, and moisture based on surface and near-surface observations. To train and test these machine-learning algorithms, we use several years of observations from the Cabauw mast in the Netherlands and from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Field Research Division tower in Idaho. The RF and ANN models outperform MOST. Even when we train the RF and ANN on one set of data and apply them to the second set, they provide more accurate estimates of all of the fluxes compared to MOST. Estimates of sensible heat and moisture fluxes are significantly improved, and model interpretability techniques highlight the logical physical relationships we expect in surface-layer processes.

 

Abstract Benchmark datasets and benchmark problems have been a key aspect for the success of modern machine learning applications in many scientific domains. Consequently, an active discussion about benchmarks for applications of machine learning has also started in the atmospheric sciences. Such benchmarks allow for the comparison of machine learning tools and approaches in a quantitative way and enable a separation of concerns for domain and machine learning scientists. However, a clear definition of benchmark datasets for weather and climate applications is missing with the result that many domain scientists are confused. In this paper, we equip the domain of atmospheric sciences with a recipe for how to build proper benchmark datasets, a (nonexclusive) list of domain-specific challenges for machine learning is presented, and it is elaborated where and what benchmark datasets will be needed to tackle these challenges. We hope that the creation of benchmark datasets will help the machine learning efforts in atmospheric sciences to be more coherent, and, at the same time, target the efforts of machine learning scientists and experts of high-performance computing to the most imminent challenges in atmospheric sciences. We focus on benchmarks for atmospheric sciences (weather, climate, and air-quality applications). However, many aspects of this paper will also hold for other aspects of the Earth system sciences or are at least transferable. Significance Statement Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that learn automatically from data. Atmospheric sciences have started to explore sophisticated machine learning techniques and the community is making rapid progress on the uptake of new methods for a large number of application areas. This paper provides a clear definition of so-called benchmark datasets for weather and climate applications that help to share data and machine learning solutions between research groups to reduce time spent in data processing, to generate synergies between groups, and to make tool developments more targeted and comparable. Furthermore, a list of benchmark datasets that will be needed to tackle important challenges for the use of machine learning in atmospheric sciences is provided. 

This is a test case study assessing the ability of deep learning methods to generalize to a future climate (end of 21st century) when trained to classify thunderstorms in model output representative of the present‐day climate. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to classify strongly rotating thunderstorms from a current climate created using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at high‐resolution, then evaluated against thunderstorms from a future climate and found to perform with skill and comparatively in both climates. Despite training with labels derived from a threshold value of a severe thunderstorm diagnostic (updraft helicity), which was not used as an input attribute, the CNN learned physical characteristics of organized convection and environments that are not captured by the diagnostic heuristic. Physical features were not prescribed but rather learned from the data, such as the importance of dry air at mid‐levels for intense thunderstorm development when low‐level moisture is present (i.e., convective available potential energy). Explanation techniques also revealed that thunderstorms classified as strongly rotating are associated with learned rotation signatures. Results show that the creation of synthetic data with ground truth is a viable alternative to human‐labeled data and that a CNN is able to generalize a target using learned features that would be difficult to encode due to spatial complexity. Most importantly, results from this study show that deep learning is capable of generalizing to future climate extremes and can exhibit out‐of‐sample robustness with hyperparameter tuning in certain applications.