On the Foundations of Earth and Climate Foundation Models

2024/05/07 by Xiao Xiang Zhu, Zhitong Xiong, Zhu, Xiao Xiang +17 · 7 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #Geological Studies and Exploration #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #electronic engineering #information engineering

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.04285

openalex publication_date 2024/05/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Foundation models have enormous potential in advancing Earth and climate sciences, however, current approaches may not be optimal as they focus on a few basic features of a desirable Earth and climate foundation model. Crafting the ideal Earth foundation model, we define eleven features which would allow such a foundation model to be beneficial for any geoscientific downstream application in an environmental- and human-centric manner.We further shed light on the way forward to achieve the ideal model and to evaluate Earth foundation models. What comes after foundation models? Energy efficient adaptation, adversarial defenses, and interpretability are among the emerging directions.

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