Utilizing Strategic Pre-training to Reduce Overfitting: Baguan -- A Pre-trained Weather Forecasting Model

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Niu, Peisong, Ma, Ziqing, Zhou, Tian, Chen, Weiqi, Shen, Lefei, Jin, Rong, Sun, Liang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Niu, Peisong
Ma, Ziqing
Zhou, Tian
Chen, Weiqi
Shen, Lefei
Jin, Rong
Sun, Liang
author_facet Niu, Peisong
Ma, Ziqing
Zhou, Tian
Chen, Weiqi
Shen, Lefei
Jin, Rong
Sun, Liang
contents Weather forecasting has long posed a significant challenge for humanity. While recent AI-based models have surpassed traditional numerical weather prediction (NWP) methods in global forecasting tasks, overfitting remains a critical issue due to the limited availability of real-world weather data spanning only a few decades. Unlike fields like computer vision or natural language processing, where data abundance can mitigate overfitting, weather forecasting demands innovative strategies to address this challenge with existing data. In this paper, we explore pre-training methods for weather forecasting, finding that selecting an appropriately challenging pre-training task introduces locality bias, effectively mitigating overfitting and enhancing performance. We introduce Baguan, a novel data-driven model for medium-range weather forecasting, built on a Siamese Autoencoder pre-trained in a self-supervised manner and fine-tuned for different lead times. Experimental results show that Baguan outperforms traditional methods, delivering more accurate forecasts. Additionally, the pre-trained Baguan demonstrates robust overfitting control and excels in downstream tasks, such as subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) modeling and regional forecasting, after fine-tuning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_13873
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Utilizing Strategic Pre-training to Reduce Overfitting: Baguan -- A Pre-trained Weather Forecasting Model
Niu, Peisong
Ma, Ziqing
Zhou, Tian
Chen, Weiqi
Shen, Lefei
Jin, Rong
Sun, Liang
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Weather forecasting has long posed a significant challenge for humanity. While recent AI-based models have surpassed traditional numerical weather prediction (NWP) methods in global forecasting tasks, overfitting remains a critical issue due to the limited availability of real-world weather data spanning only a few decades. Unlike fields like computer vision or natural language processing, where data abundance can mitigate overfitting, weather forecasting demands innovative strategies to address this challenge with existing data. In this paper, we explore pre-training methods for weather forecasting, finding that selecting an appropriately challenging pre-training task introduces locality bias, effectively mitigating overfitting and enhancing performance. We introduce Baguan, a novel data-driven model for medium-range weather forecasting, built on a Siamese Autoencoder pre-trained in a self-supervised manner and fine-tuned for different lead times. Experimental results show that Baguan outperforms traditional methods, delivering more accurate forecasts. Additionally, the pre-trained Baguan demonstrates robust overfitting control and excels in downstream tasks, such as subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) modeling and regional forecasting, after fine-tuning.
title Utilizing Strategic Pre-training to Reduce Overfitting: Baguan -- A Pre-trained Weather Forecasting Model
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13873