Adverse Climate condition is the biggest challenge we are facing globally. Taking precautions to bring our planet right back on track is one of the main criteria that, we all are looking forward to. It will need every possible solution, including technology like artificial intelligence (AI).

When Microsoft committed $50 million over five years to create and test new applications of AI for Earth program it scaled up and commercialize the most promising projects.  It's surprising how many problems machine learning can meaningfully contribute to and though it might not be a perfect solution, it is bringing new insights into the problem.

Building a better climate models

Climate informatics covers a range of topics: from improving prediction of extreme events such as hurricanes, paleoclimatology, like reconstructing past climate conditions using data collected from things like ice cores, climate downscaling or using large-scale models to predict weather on a hyper-local level, and the socio-economic impacts of weather and climate.

AI can also unlock new insights from the massive amounts of complex climate simulations generated by the field of climate modeling. Of the dozens of models that have come into existence, all look at data regarding atmosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere, or ice. Better predictions can help officials make informed climate policy, allow governments to prepare for change, and potentially uncover areas that could reverse some effects of climate change.

Showing the effects of extreme weather. Some homeowners have already experienced the effects of a changing environment. For others, it might seem less tangible. To make it more realistic for more people, AI's goal is not to convince people climate change is real, it’s to get people who do believe it is real to do more about that.

Understanding how the composition and distribution of forests change in response to hurricanes is important as when forests are damaged, vegetation decomposes and emits more CO2 into the atmosphere. As trees grow back due to its smaller structure, they store less carbon ultimately resulting in more extreme storms. Eventually, forests will not recover, less carbon will be stored, and more carbon will remain in the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.

Measuring where carbon is coming from

Carbon Tracker is an independent financial think-tank working toward the UN goal of preventing new coal plants from being built by 2020. A grant from Google is expanding the nonprofit’s satellite imagery efforts to include gas-powered plants’ emissions and get a better sense of where air pollution is coming from. While there are continuous monitoring systems near power plants that can measure CO2 emissions more directly, they do not have a global reach.

Carbon Tracker will now crunch emissions for 4,000 to 5,000 power plants, getting much more information than currently available, and make it public. In the future, if a carbon tax passes, remote sensing Carbon Tracker’s could help put a price on emissions and pinpoint those responsible for it.

Rising seas is one of the examples of climate change effects. Average sea levels have swelled over 8 inches since 1880, with about three of those inches gained in the last 25 years.

Every particular year, the sea level rise at a rapid pace. Even a tiny rise can cause devastating effects on coastal habitats. Besides, it can also cause wetland flooding, agricultural soil contamination with salt, destructive erosion, lost habitat for fish, plants, and birds.