M4Fog: A Global Multi-Regional, Multi-Modal, and Multi-Stage Dataset for Marine Fog Detection and Forecasting to Bridge Ocean and Atmosphere

TL;DR

M4Fog is a comprehensive, multi-modal dataset spanning nearly a decade, designed to improve marine fog detection and forecasting using machine learning, addressing limitations of previous datasets and supporting practical maritime safety applications.

Contribution

The paper introduces M4Fog, the most extensive marine fog dataset to date, with detailed annotations and multi-dimensional data, enabling advanced ML research for fog detection and forecasting.

Findings

Benchmarking confirms dataset's effectiveness for ML models

Multi-modal data improves fog detection accuracy

Dataset supports real-world maritime safety applications

Abstract

Marine fog poses a significant hazard to global shipping, necessitating effective detection and forecasting to reduce economic losses. In recent years, several machine learning (ML) methods have demonstrated superior detection accuracy compared to traditional meteorological methods. However, most of these works are developed on proprietary datasets, and the few publicly accessible datasets are often limited to simplistic toy scenarios for research purposes. To advance the field, we have collected nearly a decade's worth of multi-modal data related to continuous marine fog stages from four series of geostationary meteorological satellites, along with meteorological observations and numerical analysis, covering 15 marine regions globally where maritime fog frequently occurs. Through pixel-level manual annotation by meteorological experts, we present the most comprehensive marine fog detection and forecasting dataset to date, named M4Fog, to bridge ocean and atmosphere. The dataset comprises 68,000 "super data cubes" along four dimensions: elements, latitude, longitude and time, with a temporal resolution of half an hour and a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. Considering practical applications, we have defined and explored three meaningful tracks with multi-metric evaluation systems: static or dynamic marine fog detection, and spatio-temporal forecasting for cloud images. Extensive benchmarking and experiments demonstrate the rationality and effectiveness of the construction concept for proposed M4Fog. The data and codes are available to whole researchers through cloud platforms to develop ML-driven marine fog solutions and mitigate adverse impacts on human activities.