Super-Resolving Coarse-Resolution Weather Forecasts With Flow Matching

TL;DR

This paper introduces a modular super-resolution framework that enhances coarse weather forecasts with high-resolution details using flow matching, improving forecast quality efficiently.

Contribution

It presents a novel stochastic inverse super-resolution method trained on reanalysis data, decoupling resolution enhancement from the forecasting model.

Findings

Super-resolution preserves large-scale structure and variance.

Introduces physically consistent small-scale variability.

Achieves competitive forecast skill at 0.25° resolution.

Abstract

Machine learning-based weather forecasting models now surpass state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction systems, but training and operating these models at high spatial resolution remains computationally expensive. We present a modular framework that decouples forecasting from spatial resolution by applying learned generative super-resolution as a post-processing step to coarse-resolution forecast trajectories. We formulate super-resolution as a stochastic inverse problem, using a residual formulation to preserve large-scale structure while reconstructing unresolved variability. The model is trained with flow matching exclusively on reanalysis data and is applied to global medium-range forecasts. We evaluate (i) design consistency by re-coarsening super-resolved forecasts and comparing them to the original coarse trajectories, and (ii) high-resolution forecast quality using standard ensemble verification metrics and spectral diagnostics. Results show that super-resolution preserves large-scale structure and variance after re-coarsening, introduces physically consistent small-scale variability, and achieves competitive probabilistic forecast skill at 0.25{\deg} resolution relative to an operational ensemble baseline, while requiring only a modest additional training cost compared with end-to-end high-resolution forecasting.