Researchers join hands with weather agency to develop weather prediction AI

By Park Sae-jin Posted : January 17, 2020, 14:57 Updated : January 17, 2020, 15:27

[Gettyimages Bank]

SEOUL -- State researchers will work with South Korea's weather agency to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based weather prediction system capable of processing data at lightning speed. The weather agency provides weather information through web portals and smartphone apps.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the state-funded Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) to develop "Alpha Weather," an AI weather prediction program, and nurture AI specialists.

Alpha Weather is a next-generation program that can utilize some 150,000 data per hour to come up with precise weather predictions, the weather agency said, adding it would share data with KAIST for AI development.

Sometimes, weathermen have been under fire for inaccurate forecasting. As a sorry excuse, they have complained about insufficient data and unexpected weather conditions caused by rapid global climate change, although the weather agency adopted a costly supercomputer in 2015.