Comparative analysis of regression and artificial neural network models for wind speed prediction

In this study, wind speed was modeled by linear regression (LR), nonlinear regression (NLR) and artificial neural network (ANN) methods. A three-layer feedforward artificial neural network structure was constructed and a backpropagation algorithm was used for the training of ANNs. To get a successful simulation, firstly, the correlation coefficients between all of the meteorological variables (wind speed, ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity and rainfall) were calculated taking two variables in turn for each calculation. All independent variables were added to the simple regression model. Then, the method of stepwise multiple regression was applied for the selection of the “best” regression equation (model). Thus, the best independent variables were selected for the LR and NLR models and also used in the input layer of the ANN. The results obtained by all methods were compared to each other. Finally, the ANN method was found to provide better performance than the LR and NLR methods.     

Spatiotemporal modeling of monthly soil temperature using artificial neural networks

Soil temperature data are critical for understanding land–atmosphere interactions. However, in many cases, they are limited at both spatial and temporal scales. In the current study, an attempt was made to predict monthly mean soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm using artificial neural networks (ANNs) over a large region with complex terrain. Gridded independent variables, including latitude, longitude, elevation, topographic wetness index, and normalized difference vegetation index, were derived from a digital elevation model and remote sensing images with a resolution of 1 km. The good performance and robustness of the proposed ANNs were demonstrated by comparisons with multiple linear regressions. On average, the developed ANNs presented a relative improvement of about 44 % in root mean square error, 70 % in mean absolute percentage error, and 18 % in coefficient of determination over classical linear models. The proposed ANN models were then applied to predict soil temperatures at unsampled locations across the study area. Spatiotemporal variability of soil temperature was investigated based on the obtained database. Future work will be needed to test the applicability of ANNs for estimating soil temperature at finer scales.     

Comparison of artificial neural network and multivariate linear regression methods for estimation of daily soil temperature in an arid region

Soil temperature (T _S) strongly influences a wide range of biotic and abiotic processes. As an alternative to direct measurement, indirect determination of T _S from meteorological parameters has been the focus of attention of environmental researchers. The main purpose of this study was to estimate daily T _S at six depths (5, 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100?cm) by using a multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network (ANN) model and a multivariate linear regression (MLR) method in an arid region of Iran. Mean daily meteorological parameters including air temperature (T _a), solar radiation (R _S), relative humidity (RH) and precipitation (P) were used as input data to the ANN and MLR models. The model results of the MLR model were compared to those of ANN. The accuracy of the predictions was evaluated by the correlation coefficient (r), the root mean-square error (RMSE) and the mean absolute error (MAE) between the measured and predicted T _S values. The results showed that the ANN method forecasts were superior to the corresponding values obtained by the MLR model. The regression analysis indicated that T _a, RH, R _S and P were reasonably correlated with T _S at various depths, but the most effective parameters influencing T _S at different depths were T _a and RH.     

Prediction of wind properties in urban environments using artificial neural network

Artificial neural network (ANN) modeling has been performed to predict turbulent boundary layer characteristics for rough terrain based on experimental tests conducted in a boundary-layer wind tunnel to simulate atmospheric boundary layer using passive roughness devices such as spires, barriers, roughness elements on the floor, and slots in the extended test section. Different configurations of passive devices assisted to simulate urban terrains. A part of the wind tunnel test results are used as training sets for the ANN, and the other part of the test results are used to compare the prediction results of the ANN. Two ANN models have been developed in this study. The first one has been used to predict mean velocity, turbulence intensity, and model length scale factor. Results show that ANN is an efficient, accurate, and robust modeling procedure to predict turbulent characteristics of wind. In particular, it was found that the ANN-predicted wind mean velocities are within 4.7%, turbulence intensities are within 6.2%, and model length scale factors are within 3.8% of the actual measured values. In addition, another ANN model has been developed to predict instantaneous velocities that enables calculating the power spectral density of longitudinal velocity fluctuations. Results show that the predicted power spectra are in a good agreement with the power spectra obtained from measured instantaneous velocities.     

人工神经网络在温度和降水预报中的应用

利用人工神经网络的ＢＰ网络制作全省温度和降水预报。在作哈尔滨站温度预报时,选取实时高空、地面和欧洲温度场共１０个因子,一天２次发布未来２４ｈ预报。对哈尔滨站共作了１２个月的最高、最低温度预报。在作全省降水预报时,将全省分成８片,分别进行降水等级预报和暴雨有无预报;选用的是Ｔ１０６资料,选取２０个因子,对１９９８、１９９９年的温度和降水预报进行了检验和评分。     

Retrieving soil water contents from soil temperature measurements by using linear regression

A simple linear regression method is developed to retrieve daily averaged soil water content from diurnal variations of soil temperature measured at three or more depths. The method is applied to Oklahoma Mesonet soil temperature data collected at the depths of 5, 10, and 30 cm during 11-20 June 1995. The retrieved bulk soil water contents are compared with direct measurements for one pair of nearly collocated Mesonet and ARM stations and also compared with the retrievals of a previous method at 14 enhanced Oklahoma Mesonet stations. The results show that the current method gives more persistent retrievals than the previous method. The method is also applied to Oklahoma Mesonet soil temperature data collected at the depths of 5, 25, 60, and 75 cm from the Norman site during 20-30 July 1998 and 1-31 July 2000. The retrieved soil water contents are verified by collocated soil water content measurements with rms differences smaller than the soil water observation error (0.05m~3 m~(-3)). The retrievals are     

Estimation of dew point temperature using neuro-fuzzy and neural network techniques

This study investigates the ability of two different artificial neural network (ANN) models, generalized regression neural networks model (GRNNM) and Kohonen self-organizing feature maps neural networks model (KSOFM), and two different adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) models, ANFIS model with sub-clustering identification (ANFIS-SC) and ANFIS model with grid partitioning identification (ANFIS-GP), for estimating daily dew point temperature. The climatic data that consisted of 8 years of daily records of air temperature, sunshine hours, wind speed, saturation vapor pressure, relative humidity, and dew point temperature from three weather stations, Daego, Pohang, and Ulsan, in South Korea were used in the study. The estimates of ANN and ANFIS models were compared according to the three different statistics, root mean square errors, mean absolute errors, and determination coefficient. Comparison results revealed that the ANFIS-SC, ANFIS-GP, and GRNNM models showed almost the same accuracy and they performed better than the KSOFM model. Results also indicated that the sunshine hours, wind speed, and saturation vapor pressure have little effect on dew point temperature. It was found that the dew point temperature could be successfully estimated by using T _mean and R _H variables.     

Modeling daily soil temperature using data-driven models and spatial distribution

The objective of this study is to develop data-driven models, including multilayer perceptron (MLP) and adaptive neuro–fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), for estimating daily soil temperature at Champaign and Springfield stations in Illinois. The best input combinations (one, two, and three inputs) can be identified using MLP. The ANFIS is used to estimate daily soil temperature using the best input combinations (one, two, and three inputs). From the performance evaluation and scatter diagrams of MLP and ANFIS models, MLP 3 produces the best results for both stations at different depths (10 and 20 cm), and ANFIS 3 produces the best results for both stations at two different depths except for Champaign station at the 20 cm depth. Results of MLP are better than those of ANFIS for both stations at different depths. The MLP-based spatial distribution is used to estimate daily soil temperature using the best input combinations (one, two, and three inputs) at different depths below the ground. The MLP-based spatial distribution estimates daily soil temperature with high accuracy, but the results of MLP and ANFIS are better than those of the MLP-based spatial distribution for both stations at different depths. Data-driven models can estimate daily soil temperature successfully in this study.     

All India summer monsoon rainfall prediction using an artificial neural network

The prediction of Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) on a seasonal time scales has been attempted by various research groups using different techniques including artificial neural networks. The prediction of ISMR on monthly and seasonal time scales is not only scientifically challenging but is also important for planning and devising agricultural strategies. This article describes the artificial neural network (ANN) technique with error- back-propagation algorithm to provide prediction (hindcast) of ISMR on monthly and seasonal time scales. The ANN technique is applied to the five time series of June, July, August, September monthly means and seasonal mean (June + July + August + September) rainfall from 1871 to 1994 based on Parthasarathy data set. The previous five years values from all the five time-series were used to train the ANN to predict for the next year. The details of the models used are discussed. Various statistics are calculated to examine the performance of the models and it is found that the models could be used as a forecasting tool on seasonal and monthly time scales. It is observed by various researchers that with the passage of time the relationships between various predictors and Indian monsoon are changing, leading to changes in monsoon predictability. This issue is discussed and it is found that the monsoon system inherently has a decadal scale variation in predictability. Received: 13 March 1999 / Accepted: 31 August 1999     

Estimating daily pan evaporation using artificial neural network in a semi-arid environment

The objective of this study was to test an artificial neural network (ANN) for estimating the evaporation from pan (E _Pan) as a function of air temperature data in the Safiabad Agricultural Research Center (SARC) located in Khuzestan plain in the southwest of Iran. The ANNs (multilayer perceptron type) were trained to estimate E _Pan as a function of the maximum and minimum air temperature and extraterrestrial radiation. The data used in the network training were obtained from a historical series (1996–2001) of daily climatic data collected in weather station of SARC. The empirical Hargreaves equation (HG) is also considered for the comparison. The HG equation calibrated for converting grass evapotranspiration to open water evaporation by applying the same data used for neural network training. Two historical series (2002–2003) were utilized to test the network and for comparison between the ANN and calibrated Hargreaves method. The results show that both empirical and neural network methods provided closer agreement with the measured values (R ²?>?0.88 and RMSE?<?1.2 mm day^?1), but the ANN method gave better estimates than the calibrated Hargreaves method.     

Multischeme ensemble forecasting of surface temperature using neural network over Turkey

The ensemble method has long been used to reduce the errors that are caused by initial conditions and/or parameterizations of models in forecasting problems. In this study, neural network (NN) simulations are applied to ensemble weather forecasting. Temperature forecasts averaged over 2 weeks from four different forecasts are used to develop the NN model. Additionally, an ensemble mean of bias-corrected data is used as the control experiment. Overall, ensemble forecasts weighted by NN with feed forward backpropagation algorithm gave better root mean square error, mean absolute error, and same sign percent skills compared to those of the control experiment in most stations and produced more accurate weather forecasts.     

Retrieval of water vapor profiles with radio occultation measurements using an artificial neural network

A new method applying an artificial neural network （ANN） to retrieve water vapor profiles in the troposphere is presented. In this paper, a fully-connected, three-layer network based on the backpropagation algorithm is constructed. Month, latitude, altitude and bending angle are chosen as the input vectors and water vapor pressure as the output vector. There are 130 groups of occultation measurements from June to November 2002 in the dataset. Seventy pairs of bending angles and water vapor pressure profiles are used to train the ANN, and the sixty remaining pairs of profiles are applied to the validation of the retrieval. By comparing the retrieved profiles with the corresponding ones from the Information System and Data Center of the Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload for Geoscientific Research and Application （CHAMP-ISDC）, it can be concluded that the ANN is relatively convenient and accurate. Its results can be provided as the first guess for the iterative methods or the non-linear optimal estimation inverse method.     

Simulation of rainfall-runoff process using an artificial neural network (ANN) and field plots data

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Rainfall-runoff modeling is necessary for many hydrological studies, such as estimating peak discharges and designing hydraulic structures. The intensity and...     

Comprehensive modeling of monthly mean soil temperature using multivariate adaptive regression splines and support vector machine

Soil temperature (T _s) and its thermal regime are the most important factors in plant growth, biological activities, and water movement in soil. Due to scarcity of the T _s data, estimation of soil temperature is an important issue in different fields of sciences. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the accuracy of multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) and support vector machine (SVM) methods for estimating the T _s. For this aim, the monthly mean data of the T _s (at depths of 5, 10, 50, and 100 cm) and meteorological parameters of 30 synoptic stations in Iran were utilized. To develop the MARS and SVM models, various combinations of minimum, maximum, and mean air temperatures (T _min, T _max, T); actual and maximum possible sunshine duration; sunshine duration ratio (n, N, n/N); actual, net, and extraterrestrial solar radiation data (R _s, R _n, R _a); precipitation (P); relative humidity (RH); wind speed at 2 m height (u ₂); and water vapor pressure (V_p) were used as input variables. Three error statistics including root-mean-square-error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and determination coefficient (R ²) were used to check the performance of MARS and SVM models. The results indicated that the MARS was superior to the SVM at different depths. In the test and validation phases, the most accurate estimations for the MARS were obtained at the depth of 10 cm for T _max, T _min, T inputs (RMSE = 0.71 °C, MAE = 0.54 °C, and R ² = 0.995) and for RH, V _p, P, and u ₂ inputs (RMSE = 0.80 °C, MAE = 0.61 °C, and R ² = 0.996), respectively.     

SVM和Elman神经网络在乌鲁木齐污染物预报中的应用研究

选用2012年11月1日-2013年1月31日的逐6 h的空气污染物（SO2、NO2、PM10）和实况气象要素（温度、湿度、能见度、风速和气压）资料,利用支持向量机和Elman神经网络方法建立空气污染物预报模型。结果表明,支持向量机和Elman神经网络方法都可以得到较为理想的预测结果,支持向量机在泛化能力方面具有显著优势,预测结果更加准确。     

人工神经网络在月降水量预测业务中的研究和应用综述

月降水量的年际变化具有显著的非线性变化特征,预测难度大,历来是重大气象灾害预测的重点难点问题.BP(back propagation)神经网络在月降水量预测业务中的研究和应用中,取得了较好的成果,其中应用较广泛的是PCA-BP神经网络模型、遗传算法优化神经网络、RBF神经网络预测模型、小波神经网络模型、粒子群-神经网络...     

Artificial neural network assisted Bayesian calibration of climate models

We demonstrate and validate a Bayesian approach to model calibration applicable to computationally expensive General Circulation Models (GCMs) that includes a posterior estimate of the intrinsic structural error of the model. Bayesian artificial neural networks (BANNs) are trained with output from a GCM and used as emulators of the full model to allow a computationally efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling of the posterior for the GCM parameters calibrated against seasonal climatologies of temperature, pressure, and humidity. We validate the methodology by calibrating to targets produced by a model run with added noise. We then demonstrate a calibration of five GCM parameters against an observational data set. The approach accounts for both parametric and structural uncertainties of the model as well as uncertainties associated with the observational calibration data. This enables the generation of statistically rigorous probabilistic forecasts for future climate states. All calibration experiments are performed with emulators trained using a maximum of one hundred model runs, in accord with typical resource restrictions imposed by computationally expensive models. We conclude by summarizing remaining issues to address in order to create a complete and validated operational methodology for objective calibration of computationally expensive models.