Each November, Fujian province becomes a hub for marine experts from around the world, united by a shared mission: protecting the ocean.
This year, on Nov 6, Xiamen hosted the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Ocean Week under the theme "New Engine of Blue Development for the Marine Community with a Shared Future".
At the ceremony, the National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS) officially unveiled SkyOcean, the world's first artificial intelligence-based marine large model. The system can accurately forecast ocean conditions up to 10 days in advance.
This achievement owes much to 10 students from Sun Yat-sen University, including Yu Yuncong, a 24-year-old master's student from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, who played a key role in developing and deploying the core model.
"It's exciting to see cutting-edge AI technology put into real-world projects — even integrated into national operational systems — rather than remaining just a concept in academic papers," Yu said.
He explained that traditional ocean forecasting relies on physical models, which require solving intricate equations and often struggle to capture rapidly changing ocean dynamics. By contrast, AI can learn evolving patterns directly from observational data. When satellites pass over target areas, SkyOcean can generate forecasts within hours.
Since the project began in 2022, Yu and his teammates have spent countless hours testing multiple models and training approaches to identify the most effective solutions across diverse ocean scenarios.
Their efforts have paid off: at an earlier evaluation meeting hosted by NSOAS, experts concluded that SkyOcean's prediction accuracy has reached internationally advanced levels.
Yet the team is aiming even higher — using AI to assist not only experts but also the wider public.
"We're exploring a multi-agent model that can directly inform decision-making, similar to how ChatGPT operates," Yu said.
Link to the report: https://mobile.chinadaily.com.cn/cn/html5/2025-11/19/content_018_691cdf3fed50ccabe151d37d.htm
