The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) operates over 600 weather stations across twenty-three African countries, providing the largest in-situ weather dataset in Africa. Maintaining high-quality observations across such a distributed network is essential for climate research, agriculture, water management, and renewable energy planning. Measuring incoming shortwave radiation reliably over long periods is challenging. The sensors are factory-calibrated at installation. However, after approximately two years of exposure to environmental conditions, sensors begin to drift in a nonlinear manner. This drift introduces systematic bias into radiation measurements, compromising data quality and downstream applications. The goal is to develop a machine learning solution capable of reconstructing true incoming shortwave radiation and enabling operational drift correction across TAHMO's network.

Your task for this challenge is to predict incoming shortwave radiation at 15-minute interval for the missing even months of year 1 for each station.

TAHMO

The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) is a not-for-profit organisation that provides institutional weather and climate data across SubSaharan Africa. TAHMO operates a network of more than 600 hydro-meteorological stations in twenty-three African countries. It provides an innovative rainfall product that combines ground data, commercial microwave links and satellite data for accurate and timely information that forms the basis for flood early warning systems (EWS).

The TAHMO initiative is committed to serving the public by advancing the free and open exchange of hydro-meteorological data collected with its monitoring stations. By allowing the free download of all raw TAHMO data for scientific research and governmental applications, TAHMO supports World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Resolution 40 and Resolution 25. Commercial applications of TAHMO data are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Google DeepMind

We live in an exciting time when AI research and technology are delivering extraordinary advances. In the coming years, AI — and ultimately artificial general intelligence (AGI) — has the potential to drive one of the greatest transformations in history. We’re a team of scientists, engineers, ethicists and more, working to build the next generation of AI systems safely and responsibly. By solving some of the hardest scientific and engineering challenges of our time, we’re working to create breakthrough technologies that could advance science, transform work, serve diverse communities — and improve billions of people’s lives.

AfriClimate AI

The idea for Africlimate AI sprouted in September 2023 at the Deep Learning Indaba in Accra, Ghana. Members of the Indaba community felt a crucial gap: a movement to drive research collaboration in artificial intelligence (AI) and climate science within Africa.

Inspired by the existing Deep Learning Indaba community, Africlimate AI aims to empower Africans to become active shapers, not just observers, of the ongoing advancements in these fields. This initiative goes beyond simply receiving knowledge from other regions. It strives to place Africans at the forefront, shaping AI and climate science solutions specifically relevant to the continent's needs and challenges.

This challenge uses multi-metric evaluation. There are two error metrics: Absolute Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE).

To perform well in this challenge, your solution needs to be both correct in what it predicts.

The final score on the leaderboard is the weighted mean of the two evaluation metrics.

Metric        Weighting
MBE           0.7
RMSE          0.3
           

Absolute Mean Bias Error (MBE) measures the deviation from the observed value as: |MBE| = |mean(predicted - observed)|

Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) measures the average magnitude of prediction errors — how far predictions are from actual values, in the same units as the target.

🥇 1st prize: $5 000 USD

🥈2nd prize: $3 000 USD

🥉3rd prize: $2 000 USD

There are 10 000 Zindi points available. You can read more about Zindi points here.

• Languages and tools: You may only use open-source languages and tools in building models for this challenge.
• Who can compete: Open to all
• Submission Limits: 10 submissions per day, 100 submissions overall.
• Team size: Max team size of 4
• Public-Private Split: Zindi maintains a public leaderboard and a private leaderboard for each challenge. The Public Leaderboard includes approximately 50% of the test dataset. The private leaderboard will be revealed at the close of the challenge and contains the remaining 50% of the test set.
• Data Sharing: CC-BY SA 4.0 license
• Model, Code and Report Review: Top 10 on the private leaderboard will receive an email requesting their model, code and report at the close of the challenge. You will have 48 hours to submit your model, code and report.
• Code sharing: Multiple accounts, or sharing of code and information across accounts not in teams, is not allowed and will lead to disqualification.

ENTRY INTO THIS CHALLENGE CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL CHALLENGE RULES.

Teams and collaboration

You may participate in challenges as an individual or in a team of up to four people. When creating a team, the team must have a total submission count less than or equal to the maximum allowable submissions as of the formation date. A team will be allowed the maximum number of submissions for the challenge, minus the total number of submissions among team members at team formation. Prizes are transferred only to the individual players or to the team leader.

Multiple accounts per user are not permitted, and neither is collaboration or membership across multiple teams. Individuals and their submissions originating from multiple accounts will be immediately disqualified from the platform.

Code must not be shared privately outside of a team. Any code that is shared, must be made available to all challenge participants through the platform. (i.e. on the discussion boards).

The Zindi data scientist who sets up a team is the default Team Leader but they can transfer leadership to another data scientist on the team. The Team Leader can invite other data scientists to their team. Invited data scientists can accept or reject invitations. Until a second data scientist accepts an invitation to join a team, the data scientist who initiated a team remains an individual on the leaderboard. No additional members may be added to teams within the final 5 days of the challenge or last hour of a hackathon.

The team leader can initiate a merge with another team. Only the team leader of the second team can accept the invite. The default team leader is the leader from the team who initiated the invite. Teams can only merge if the total number of members is less than or equal to the maximum team size of the challenge.

A team can be disbanded if it has not yet made a submission. Once a submission is made individual members cannot leave the team.

All members in the team receive points associated with their ranking in the challenge and there is no split or division of the points between team members.

Datasets, packages and general principles

The solution must use publicly-available, open-source packages only.

You may use only the datasets provided for this challenge and datasets that are freely and operationally available, such as satellite data. Because the solution may be used operationally as well, the data used should be available within one month of acquisition.

You may use pretrained models as long as they are openly available to everyone.

Automated machine learning tools such as automl are not permitted.

If the error metric requires probabilities to be submitted, do not set thresholds (or round your probabilities) to improve your place on the leaderboard. In order to ensure that the client receives the best solution Zindi will need the raw probabilities. This will allow the clients to set thresholds to their own needs.

You are allowed to access, use and share challenge data for any commercial, non-commercial, research or education purposes, under a CC-BY SA 4.0 license.

You must notify Zindi immediately upon learning of any unauthorised transmission of or unauthorised access to the challenge data, and work with Zindi to rectify any unauthorised transmission or access.

Your solution must not infringe the rights of any third party and you must be legally entitled to assign ownership of all rights of copyright in and to the winning solution code to Zindi.

Submissions and winning

You may make a maximum of 10 submissions per day.

You may make a maximum of 100 submissions for this challenge.

Before the end of the challenge you need to choose 2 submissions to be judged on for the private leaderboard. If you do not make a selection your 2 best public leaderboard submissions will be used to score on the private leaderboard.

During the challenge, your best public score will be displayed regardless of the submissions you have selected. When the challenge closes your best private score out of the 2 selected submissions will be displayed.

Zindi maintains a public leaderboard and a private leaderboard for each challenge. The Public Leaderboard includes approximately 50% of the test dataset. While the challenge is open, the Public Leaderboard will rank the submitted solutions by the accuracy score they achieve. Upon close of the challenge, the Private Leaderboard, which covers the other 50% of the test dataset, will be made public and will constitute the final ranking for the challenge.

Note that to count, your submission must first pass processing. If your submission fails during the processing step, it will not be counted and not receive a score; nor will it count against your daily submission limit. If you encounter problems with your submission file, your best course of action is to ask for advice on the challenge page.

If you are in the top 10 at the time the leaderboard closes, we will email you to request your code. On receipt of email, you will have 48 hours to respond and submit your code following the Reproducibility of submitted code guidelines detailed below. Failure to respond will result in disqualification.

If your solution places 1st, 2nd, or 3rd on the final leaderboard, you will be required to submit your winning solution model, code and the related report to us for verification and make both of them publicly available.

Please note that due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, we are not currently able to make prize payments to winners located in Russia. We apologise for any inconvenience that may cause, and will handle any issues that arise on a case-by-case basis.

Payment will be made after code/report review and sealing the leaderboard.

You acknowledge and agree that Zindi may, without any obligation to do so, remove or disqualify an individual, team, or account if Zindi believes that such individual, team, or account is in violation of these rules. Entry into this challenge constitutes your acceptance of these official challenge rules.

Zindi is committed to providing solutions of value to our clients and partners. To this end, we reserve the right to disqualify your submission on the grounds of usability or value. This includes but is not limited to the use of data leaks or any other practices that we deem to compromise the inherent value of your solution.

Zindi also reserves the right to disqualify you and/or your submissions from any challenge if we believe that you violated the rules or violated the spirit of the challenge or the platform in any other way. The disqualifications are irrespective of your position on the leaderboard and completely at the discretion of Zindi.

Please refer to the FAQs and Terms of Use for additional rules that may apply to this challenge. We reserve the right to update these rules at any time.

Reproducibility of submitted code

If your submitted code does not reproduce your score on the leaderboard, we reserve the right to adjust your rank to the score generated by the code you submitted.

If your code does not run you will be dropped from the top 10. Please make sure your code runs before submitting your solution.

Always set the seed. Rerunning your model should always place you at the same position on the leaderboard. When running your solution, if randomness shifts you down the leaderboard we reserve the right to adjust your rank to the closest score that your submission reproduces.

Custom packages in your submission notebook will not be accepted.

You may only use tools available to everyone i.e. no paid services or free trials that require a credit card.

Read this article on how to prepare your documentation and this article on how to ensure a successful code review.

Consequences of breaking any rules of the challenge or submission guidelines:

• First offence: No prizes for 6 months and 2000 points will be removed from your profile (probation period). If you are caught cheating, all individuals involved in cheating will be disqualified from the challenge(s) you were caught in and you will be disqualified from winning any challenges for the next six months and 2000 points will be removed from your profile. If you have less than 2000 points to your profile your points will be set to 0.
• Second offence: Banned from the platform. If you are caught for a second time your Zindi account will be disabled and you will be disqualified from winning any challenges or Zindi points using any other account.

Teams with individuals who are caught cheating will not be eligible to win prizes or points in the challenge in which the cheating occurred, regardless of the individuals’ knowledge of or participation in the offence.

Teams with individuals who have previously committed an offence will not be eligible for any prizes for any challenges during the 6-month probation period.

Monitoring of submissions

We will review the top 10 solutions of every challenge when the challenge ends.

We reserve the right to request code from any user at any time during a challenge. You will have 24 hours to submit your code following the rules for code review (see above). Zindi reserves the right not to explain our reasons for requesting code. If you do not submit your code within 24 hours you will be disqualified from winning any challenges or Zindi points for the next six months. If you fall under suspicion again and your code is requested and you fail to submit your code within 24 hours, your Zindi account will be disabled and you will be disqualified from winning any challenges or Zindi points with any other account.

🚀 What to know to get started with Zindi Challenges

How to get started on Zindi

How to create a team on Zindi

How to run notebooks in Colab

How to update your profile