Pasteur Labs & ISI’s Post

The "Earth Intelligence Engine" creates realistic, simulated satellite imagery from the future, by combining a physics-based model with generative AI. These images can help users see what their region might look like after a hurricane or other flooding event, in much more vivid detail than traditional, color-coded flood maps. Developed by researchers from MIT, with collaborators from academia, government, and industry, the tool has the potential to help policymakers and residents make better decisions about how to prepare in advance of a storm, and when to evacuate. Björn Lütjens, a postdoc in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (MIT EAPS) who led the research while he was a doctoral student in MIT AeroAstro, explains, “The idea is: One day, we could use this before a hurricane, where it provides an additional visualization layer for the public. One of the biggest challenges is encouraging people to evacuate when they are at risk. Maybe this could be another visualization to help increase that readiness.” Media Lab Director Dava Newman, a co-author on the paper, says, “People relate to their own zip code, their local environment where their family and friends live. Providing local climate simulations becomes intuitive, personal, and relatable.” The researchers’ paper, “Generating Physically-Consistent Satellite Imagery for Climate Visualizations,” is out today in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (IEEE Xplore). Authors: Björn Lütjens (MIT EAPS); Océane Boulais (Scripps Institution of Oceanography); Farrukh Chishtie (The University of British Columbia and Peaceful Society, Science and Innovation Foundation); Natalia Díaz Rodríguez (Universidad de Granada); Margaux Masson-Forsythe 🏳️🌈 (Surgical Data Science Collective (SDSC)); Ana Mata-Payerro (MIT Human Systems Laboratory); Christian R. (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry); Aruna Sankaranarayanan (CSAIL MIT); Aaron Piña (USDA Forest Service); Yarin Gal (University of Oxford); Chedy Raissi (Riot Games); Alexander Lavin (Pasteur Labs & ISI); Dava Newman (MIT Media Lab/MIT AeroAstro). https://lnkd.in/gQWiuKuq