NVIDIA Launches Earth-2: A New Era of AI-Powered Weather Forecasting
NVIDIA has recently unveiled a revolutionary suite of open-source AI models, known as ‘Earth-2‘. These models are set to transform the realm of weather forecasting by making it up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods. The announcement was made on January 26, 2026, at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in Houston.
The Earth-2 toolkit comprises several specialized models:
- Earth-2 Medium Range: Powered by the new Atlas architecture, this model enables high-accuracy weather prediction for forecasts up to 15 days in advance across more than 70 weather variables.
- Earth-2 Nowcasting: Utilizing the StormScope model, it delivers kilometer-resolution predictions of local storms and hazardous weather for zero to six hours ahead, generating results in just minutes.
By harnessing the power of graphics processing units (GPUs) instead of relying on massive supercomputers, NVIDIA has managed to drastically reduce computational time from hours to mere seconds. Early adopters, such as the Israel Meteorological Service and various energy firms, have reported up to a 90% reduction in computing costs.
The Earth-2 models are freely available on GitHub and Hugging Face for both commercial and non-commercial use. This allows countries and organizations to run their own weather forecasting systems. Major partners already using Earth-2 include Brightband, TotalEnergies, The Weather Company, and the U.S. National Weather Service.
Source: NVIDIA Blog