AIFS-SUBS: Extending Data-Driven Forecasting to Sub-Seasonal Timescales

Data-driven models now rival numerical weather prediction in the medium range, but extending them to sub-seasonal lead times raises challenges absent at shorter horizons. Errors accumulate over long autoregressive rollouts, systematic biases grow with lead time, and several years of data must be held out for independent verification, even though machine-learning models otherwise benefit from longer training records. To address these challenges, we adapt ECMWF's AIFS-CRPS medium-range model. AIFS-SUBS adopts a 24h autoregressive time step to reduce error accumulation, adds stratospheric levels and top-of-atmosphere thermal radiation as predictors, and reserves 2007--2011 as an independent verification window. We evaluate two config-durations: AIFS-SUBS, fine-tuned on operational analyses, and AIFS-SUBS-ERA5, trained on ERA5 alone. Across weeks 2--6, AIFS-SUBS matches the operational Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) in probabilistic skill while reducing systematic biases. For the convective (OLR) component of the Madden--Julian Oscillation (MJO), AIFS-SUBS extends skilful forecasts (correlation > 0.5) by eight days relative to the IFS, while matching or exceeding the IFS for the full multivariate RMM index. AIFS-SUBS also reproduces the observed MJO modulation of tropical cyclone activity comparably. Stratospheric skill is particularly strong with AIFS-SUBS reproducing sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) frequency and surface impact. In the AI Weather Quest, AIFS-SUBS-ERA5 attains a variable-averaged ranked probability skill score slightly ahead of the IFS at weeks 3 and 4. At inference, AIFS-SUBS uses about 200 times less energy than the IFS, opening the door to much larger real-time ensembles. AIFS-SUBS is ECMWF's first machine-learning model targeted at sub-seasonal time-scales.

Learning Coupled Earth System Dynamics with GraphDOP

Interactions between different components of the Earth System (e.g. ocean, atmosphere, land and cryosphere) are a crucial driver of global weather patterns. Modern Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems typically run separate models of the different components, explicitly coupled across their interfaces to additionally model exchanges between the different components. Accurately representing these coupled interactions remains a major scientific and technical challenge of weather forecasting. GraphDOP is a graph-based machine learning model that learns to forecast weather directly from raw satellite and in-situ observations, without reliance on reanalysis products or traditional physics-based NWP models. GraphDOP simultaneously embeds information from diverse observation sources spanning the full Earth system into a shared latent space. This enables predictions that implicitly capture cross-domain interactions in a single model without the need for any explicit coupling. Here we present a selection of case studies which illustrate the capability of GraphDOP to forecast events where coupled processes play a particularly key role. These include rapid sea-ice freezing in the Arctic, mixing-induced ocean surface cooling during Hurricane Ian and the severe European heat wave of 2022. The results suggest that learning directly from Earth System observations can successfully characterise and propagate cross-component interactions, offering a promising path towards physically consistent end-to-end data-driven Earth System prediction with a single model.