Sea Surface Temperature Prediction With Memory Graph Convolutional Networks

We develop a memory graph convolutional network (MGCN) framework for sea surface temperature (SST) prediction. The MGCN consists of two memory layers: one graph layer and one output layer. The memory layer captures SST temporal changes via temporal convolution units and gate linear units. The graph layer encodes SST spatial changes in terms of characteristics derived from graph Laplacian. The output layer encapsulates information from the previous layers and produces SST prediction results. The MGCN characterizes both the temporal and spatial changes, rendering a comprehensive SST prediction strategy. We use daily mean SST data for two areas near the Bohai Sea and the East China Sea for experimental evaluations and validate that the MGCN performs better than other traditional machine learning methods for nearshore SST prediction. In addition, we test the MGCN on weekly and monthly mean SST datasets and validate that the MGCN is robust and suitable for SST prediction.