Articles | Volume 16, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3123-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3123-2023
Review and perspective paper
 | 
02 Jun 2023
Review and perspective paper |  | 02 Jun 2023

Differentiable programming for Earth system modeling

Maximilian Gelbrecht, Alistair White, Sebastian Bathiany, and Niklas Boers

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Editorial statement
This paper reviews the technique of differentiable programming in Earth System Modeling.
Short summary
Differential programming is a technique that enables the automatic computation of derivatives of the output of models with respect to model parameters. Applying these techniques to Earth system modeling leverages the increasing availability of high-quality data to improve the models themselves. This can be done by either using calibration techniques that use gradient-based optimization or incorporating machine learning methods that can learn previously unresolved influences directly from data.
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