Toward Artificial Intelligence Enabled Earth System Coupling

TL;DR

This review explores how advanced AI techniques can improve the integration and physical consistency of Earth system models across various domains, fostering more unified and coherent representations.

Contribution

It specifically analyzes the potential of AI to enhance cross-domain interactions and address limitations in multi-component Earth system models.

Findings

AI can support more coherent multi-component Earth system representations

Emerging AI methods can improve physical consistency and interpretability

AI offers pathways to develop unified Earth system frameworks

Abstract

Coupling constitutes a foundational mechanism in the Earth system, regulating the interconnected physical, chemical, and biological processes that link its spheres. This review examines how emerging artificial intelligence (AI) methods create new opportunities to enhance Earth system coupling and address long-standing limitations in multi-component models. Rather than surveying next-generation modelling efforts broadly, we focus specifically on how state-of-the-art AI techniques can strengthen cross-domain interactions, support more coherent multi-component representations, and enable progress toward unified Earth system frameworks. The scope extends beyond climate models to include any modelling system in which Earth spheres interact. We outline emerging opportunities, persistent limitations, and conceptual pathways through which AI may enhance physical consistency, interpretability, and integration across domains. In doing so, this review provides a structured foundation for understanding the role of AI in advancing coupled Earth system modelling.