NASA and Microsoft finalize tool to track Earth’s water changes

Following a successful prototype, Microsoft will be delivering a new artificial intelligence tool to the U.S. government that uses historic hydrology data to help a diverse set of users understand and predict trends in Earth’s waters.

The final version of Microsoft and NASA’s Earth Copilot is set to be deployed as a multi-AI agent software that can distill complex data on the planet’s water patterns to observe current and future changes. 

One of Earth Copilot’s most critical functions is its user-friendly interface to help those without a strictly technical background access and understand hydraulic data with plain-language queries.

“The copilot interprets the question, identifies the relevant hydrologic variables, retrieves authoritative explanations, runs the necessary geospatial queries, and presents results as maps, charts, and clear narrative descriptions,” Microsoft’s announcement reads. “It feels less like searching a database and more like collaborating with a hydrologist who understands both the science and the user’s intent.”

Earth Copilot uses the North American Land Data Assimilation System Version 3, or NLDAS-3, as its core data. The AI agents wrangling this data exist within Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI partnership and the Microsoft Foundry platform that hosts multiple large language models for customization.

“This partnership marks an important step toward democratizing access to Earth science and equipping communities with the insights they need to prepare for the future,” the Microsoft press release said. “But it is only the beginning. As AI and cloud technologies advance, so too will our ability to transform scientific data into meaningful action.”