Aurora 1.5 extends open foundation model with more variables, hourly resolution, and probabilistic ensembles

KEY POINTS

1. Microsoft Research released Aurora 1.5, an update to the open Aurora foundation model that adds 22 additional variables, shifts to hourly temporal resolution, and introduces probabilistic ensemble forecasting to support weather, climate and energy applications.
2. The changes are intended to make the model more useful for real-world Earth-system and operational use cases.
3. Expanding variables, temporal resolution, and adding probabilistic ensembles makes the foundation model more applicable to operational weather, climate and energy tasks and facilitates broader research and downstream use.