Aurora 1.5: Extending open foundation models for weather and Earth-system applications
Microsoft Research Kenji Takeda, Haiyu Dong, Jonathan Weyn, Amit Misra, Matt Corey, Kevin White, Shannon Monroe, Juan M. Lavista Ferres, Ashley Llorens, Bonnie Kruft
Microsoft released Aurora 1.5, an open-source Earth-system foundation model that expands the original Aurora with 22 additional weather variables, hourly temporal resolution, and probabilistic ensemble forecasting capabilities for applications in energy, agriculture, and climate risk. Aurora 1.5's ensemble forecasts outperform the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on 88.9% of evaluated targets and reduced tropical cyclone track errors by roughly one-third compared to the original model. The model is available on GitHub and Hugging Face for researchers while also being integrated into Microsoft Weather services and enterprise solutions through partnerships like BKW for operational weather forecasting.
Why it matters
Aurora 1.5 adds 22 more variables, hourly temporal resolution, and probabilistic ensemble forecasting to the Aurora foundation model, making it more useful for real-world weather, climate, and energy applications. The post Aurora 1.5: Extending open foundation models for weather and Earth-system applications appeared first on Microsoft Research.
