China begins trial of faster, more detailed AI dust forecasting system

China has begun trial operations of a new artificial intelligence system designed to improve dust forecasting in some of the country's most hazard-prone regions.

The model, developed by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences' Lanzhou Institute of Arid Meteorology, began testing in Gansu province in late November, according to CCTV News.

Researchers raised the system's spatial resolution from 50 kilometers to 5 kilometers through a downscaling technique. The upgrade addresses a limitation in earlier 50-km AI products, which were built for large-scale regional dust tracking but lacked the precision required for localized forecasting and public-oriented services in Northwest China.