Forecasting Buoy Observations Using Physics-Informed Neural Networks

Methodologies inspired by physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) were used to forecast observations recorded by stationary ocean buoys. We combined buoy observations with numerical models to train surrogate deep learning networks that performed better than with either data alone. Numerical model outputs were collected from two sources for training and regularization: the hybrid circulation ocean model and the fifth European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis experiment. A hyperparameter determines the ratio of observational and modeled data to be used in the training procedure, so we conducted a grid search to find the most performant ratio. Overall, the technique improved the general forecast performance compared with nonregularized models. Under specific circumstances, the regularization mechanism enabled the PINN models to be more accurate than the numerical models. This demonstrates the utility of combining various climate models and sensor observations to improve surrogate modeling.