UCSD - University of California - San Diego

10/14/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/14/2026 17:18

UC San Diego Awarded $2.35 Million from Google to Advance AI-Driven Climate Modeling

Published Date

October 14, 2026

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Oct. 14, 2026 ー For the University of California San Diego's Duncan Watson-Parris, the next frontier for artificial intelligence in climate science doesn't stop at the computer model. It extends into the ocean itself.

Watson-Parris and his collaborators have received $2.35 million in funding through the Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Science for a project that harnesses artificial intelligence to improve climate models. That connection between computational models and observations is a central feature of the work: Rather than relying only on existing data, Watson-Parris and his collaborators plan to use insights from the modeling effort to inform future scientific efforts to measure the ocean.

"Climate models are extraordinarily powerful tools, but there are still important processes that are difficult to represent," said Watson-Parris, who is an assistant professor jointly appointed at UC San Diego's Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "This support gives us an opportunity to use AI to help learn improved physics from data, identify where new observations could have the greatest value and then go into the ocean and collect those measurements."

The Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Science is a $36 million global initiative supporting researchers and organizations using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery. A total of 17 projects were selected among 3,000 submissions from 30 countries, in areas including climate resilience and environmental science as well as health and life sciences.

Google.org is announcing recipient organizations today during its Europe, Middle East and Africa Impact Summit in Dublin, Ireland, where Watson-Parris is participating in the initiative's kickoff.

Bringing AI and ocean science together

As an atmospheric physicist, Watson-Parris's research focuses on the interactions among aerosols, clouds and climate, as well as the use of machine learning to improve climate models across scales. His work combines physical and data-driven models with the goal of improving understanding of the climate system and the accuracy of its projections.

That interdisciplinary approach reflects Watson-Parris's unusual position spanning two areas of UC San Diego research. His Climate Analytics Lab at UC San Diego has pursued several efforts applying machine learning to climate science, while his published research includes work on data-driven climate projections, aerosol-cloud interactions and climate-model development and evaluation.

The new project builds on a broader effort at UC San Diego to bring artificial intelligence and Earth science together. Watson-Parris is also helping to lead the GAIA Initiative, a collaboration that brings together researchers from across campus who are using AI to better understand Earth's natural systems.

For the Google project, the team will use AI agents to improve climate modeling and help guide new ocean observations, including data collected by specially adapted Argo floats that measure small-scale mixing in the ocean.

"This project demonstrates the ways AI is changing how geophysics is studied," said Halıcıoğlu School Dean Rajesh K. Gupta, "as well as what becomes possible when advances in AI and data science are developed in close partnership with domain scientists tackling major scientific problems."

Additional collaborators on the award include Rose Yu and Matthew Alford from UC San Diego, Pierre Gentine of Colombia University, and Verokina Eyring with the University of Tübingen.

About the Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing

UC San Diego's Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing (HSDSC) brings together computing, data, and AI to address some of today's most complex challenges. By integrating research, education, and real-world application, the school prepares students and researchers to turn data into meaningful insight and impact. The Halıcıoğlu School builds on the combined strengths of the San Diego Supercomputer Center - an international leader in high-performance and data-intensive computing - and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, a pioneering hub for interdisciplinary data science and AI. Together, they form a dynamic academic environment that advances cutting-edge research, fosters collaboration across disciplines, and prepares the next generation to lead in a data-driven world.

About Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego is one of the world's most important centers for global earth science research and education. In its second century of discovery, Scripps scientists work to understand and protect the planet, and investigate our oceans, Earth, and atmosphere to find solutions to our greatest environmental challenges. Scripps offers unparalleled education and training for the next generation of scientific and environmental leaders through its undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs. The institution also operates a fleet of four oceanographic research vessels, and is home to Birch Aquarium at Scripps, the public exploration center that welcomes 500,000 visitors each year.

Learn more about research and education at UC San Diego in: Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence

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